Alexander von Humboldt

“ The more magnificent portion of the southern sky, in which shine the constellations of the Centaur, Argo, and the Southern Cross, where the Magellanic clouds shed their pale light, is for ever concealed from the eyes of the inhabitants of Europe. It is only under the equator that man enjoys the glorious spectacle of all the stars of the southern and northern heavens revealed at one glance. ”

“ The poetical works of the Greeks and the ruder songs of the primitive northern races owe much of their peculiar character to the forms of plants and animals, to the mountain-valleys in which their poets dwelt, and to the air which surrounded them. To revert to more familiar objects, who is there that does not feel himself differently affected beneath the embowering shade of the beechen grove, or on hills crowned with a few scattered pines, or in the flowering meadow where the breeze murmurs through the trembling foliage of the birch? ”

“ Thus pass away the generations of men!—thus perish the records of the glory of nations! Yet when every emanation of the human mind has faded—when in the storms of time the monuments of man’s creative art are scattered to the dust—an ever new life springs from the bosom of the earth. Unceasingly prolific nature unfolds her germs,—regardless though sinful man, ever at war with himself, tramples beneath his foot the ripening fruit! ”

“ What can be more picturesque than the arborescent Ferns, which spread their tender foliage above the Mexican laureloak! 230what more charming than the aspect of banana-groves, shaded by those lofty grasses, the Guadua and Bamboo! It is peculiarly the privilege of the artist to separate these into groups, and thus the beautiful images of nature, if we may be permitted the simile, resolve themselves beneath his touch, like the written works of man, into a few simple elements.
It is beneath the glowing rays of a tropical sun, that the noblest forms of vegetation are developed. ”

“ Everywhere, in every separate portion of the earth, nature is indeed only a reflex of the whole. The forms of organization recur again and again in different combinations. Even the icy north is cheered for months together by the presence of herbs and large Alpine blossoms covering the earth, and by a mild azure sky. Hitherto landscape painting among us has pursued her graceful labours familiar only with the simpler forms of our native floras, but not therefore without depth of feeling and richness of creative fancy. ”

“ After having travelled for eighteen months without intermission, 417within the restricted boundaries of the interior of a mountainous country, we felt an ardent desire to enjoy a view of the open sea, a desire which was heightened by repeated disappointments. Looking from the summit of the volcano of Pichincha, over the thick forests of the Provincia de las Esmeraldas, no sea horizon is distinctly discernible owing to the great distance and the height of the point of view. It is like looking down from a balloon into empty space; the fancy divines objects which the eye cannot distinguish. ”

“ Here we everywhere recognise traces of chaotic devastation. To the north, towards Uruana and Encaramada, rise granite rocks of grotesque appearance, which, in singularly formed crags of dazzling whiteness, gleam brightly from amidst the surrounding groves.
At this point, near the mouth of the Apure, the stream leaves the granitic chain, and flowing eastward, separates as far as the Atlantic, the impenetrable forests of Guiana from the Savannahs, on whose far distant horizon the vault of heaven seems to rest. ”

“ They recal to the mind of the European those groups of vegetation which the inhabitants of the Alps term courtils, blocks of granite bedecked with flowers which project solitarily amid the Glaciers of Savoy.
In the blue distance the eye rests on the mountain chain of Cunavami, a far-stretching chain of hills which terminates abruptly in a sharply truncated cone. We saw this conical hill, called by the Indians Calitamini, glowing at sunset as if in crimson flames. This appearance daily returns. No one has ever been in the immediate neighbourhood of this mountain. ”

“ The larger animals at such times take refuge in the deep recesses of the forest, the birds nestle beneath the foliage of the trees, or in the clefts of the rocks; but if in this apparent stillness of nature we listen closely for the faintest tones, we detect, a dull, muffled sound, a buzzing and humming of insects close to the earth, in the lower strata of the atmosphere. Everything proclaims a world of active organic forces. In every shrub, in the cracked bark of trees, in the perforated ground inhabited by hymenopterous insects, life is everywhere audibly manifest. ”

“ The picturesque beauty of Italian scenery depends mainly on the pleasing contrast between the bare and desolate rock and the luxuriant vegetation which, island-like, is scattered over its surface. Where the rock is less intersected by fissures, so that the water rests longer on its surface, and where it is covered with earth (as on the enchanting banks of Lake Albano) , there even Italy has her oak-forests, as shady and verdant as could be desired by an inhabitant of the North. ”

“ And thus, too, the traveller, wandering over the wide world by sea and land, and the historian who searches the records of bygone ages, are everywhere met by the unvarying and melancholy spectacle of man opposed to man.
He, therefore, who amid the discordant strife of nations, would seek intellectual repose, turns with delight to contemplate the silent life of plants, and to study the hidden forces of nature in her sacred sanctuaries ”

“ Indelible is the impression left on my mind by those calm tropical nights of the Pacific, where the constellation of Argo in its zenith, and the setting Southern Cross, pour their mild planetary light through the ethereal azure of the sky, while dolphins mark the foaming waves with their luminous furrows. ”

“ If travellers, the moment they set foot in a tropical region, and even while on islands, in the vicinity of the sea-coast, imagine that they are within the precincts of a primeval forest, the misconception must be ascribed to their ardent desire of realizing a long-cherished wish. Every tropical forest is not primeval forest. ”

“ From the Salt-steppes of Asia,—from the European Heaths,—smiling in summer with their scarlet, honey-yielding flowers,—and from the barren deserts of Africa, we return to the plains of South America, the picture of which I have already begun to sketch in rude outline.
6But the interest yielded by the contemplation of such a picture must arise from a pure love of nature. No Oasis here reminds the traveller of former inhabitants, no hewn stone [12] , no fruit-tree once cultivated and now growing wild, bears witness to the industry of past races. ”

“ Horses and oxen, buoyant with life and enjoyment, roam over and crop the plains. The luxuriant grass hides the beautifully spotted Jaguar, who, lurking in safe concealment, and carefully measuring the extent of the leap, darts, like the Asiatic tiger, with a cat-like bound on his passing prey.
At times, according to the account of the natives, the humid clay on the banks of the morasses [39] , is seen to rise slowly in broad flakes. Accompanied by a violent noise, as on the eruption of a small mud-volcano, the upheaved earth is hurled high into the air. ”

“ The fresh green of the Pothos leaves and of the Dracontias contrast with the many coloured blossoms of the Orchideæ; climbing Bauhinias, Passion-flowers and golden flowered Banisterias encircle every tree of the forest. Delicate blossoms unfold themselves from the roots of the Theobroma, and from the thick and rough bark of the Crescentia and Gustavia [105] . Amid this luxuriant abundance of flowers and foliage, amid this exuberance and tangled web of creeping plants, it is often difficult for the naturalist to recognise the stems to which the various leaves and blossoms belong. ”

“ Many foals are drowned, many are seized by crocodiles, crushed by their serrated tails, and devoured. Horses and oxen may not unfrequently be seen which have escaped from the fury of this blood-thirsty and gigantic lizard, bearing on their legs the marks of its pointed teeth.
This spectacle involuntarily reminds the contemplative observer of the adaptability granted by an all-provident nature to certain animals and plants. ”

“ In endeavouring by a few equally brief touches to give a sketch of the natural features of North America, we must first glance at the chain of the Andes, which, narrow at its origin, soon increases in height and breadth as it follows an inclination from south-east to north-west, passing through Panama, Veragua, Guatimala, and New Spain. This range of mountains, formerly the seat of an ancient civilization, presents a like barrier to the general current of the sea between the tropics, and to a more rapid intercommunication between Europe, Western Africa, and Eastern Asia. ”

“ The son of Astorpilca assured me that underground, a little to the right of the spot on which I then stood, there was a large Datura tree, or Guanto, in full flower, exquisitely made of gold wire and plates of gold, and that its branches overspread the Inca’s chair. The morbid faith with which the youth asserted his belief in this fabulous story, made a profound and melancholy impression on me. These illusions are cherished among the people here, as affording them consolation amidst great privation and earthly suffering. ”

“ To the north, between the mountain chain of Venezuela and the Caribbean Sea, lie, crowded together, industrial cities, clean and neat villages, and carefully tilled fields. Even a taste for arts, scientific culture, and a noble love of civil freedom, have long since been awakened within these regions.
To the south, a drear and savage wilderness bounds the Steppe. Forests, the growth of thousands of years, in one impenetrable thicket, overspread the marshy region between the rivers Orinoco and Amazon. Huge masses of lead-coloured granite [46] contract the beds of the foaming rivers. ”

“ Where the acicular or needle-leaved trees, as in the Swiss Alps and the Pyrenees, and not the birch as in the extreme north, form the boundary of arborescent vegetation on the loftiest mountains, which they picturesquely encircle, they are immediately followed in their ascent towards the snow-crowned summits, in Europe and Western Asia by the Alpine roses, Rhododendra, and at the Silla de Caracas, and the Peruvian Paramo de Saraguru, by the purplish-red blossoms of the graceful Befariæ. ”

“ These and many other of the enjoyments which nature affords are denied to the nations of the North. Many constellations and many vegetable forms, including more especially the most beautiful productions of the earth (palms, tree-ferns, bananas, arborescent grasses, and delicately feathered mimosas) , remain for ever unknown to them; for the puny plants pent up in our hothouses, give but a faint idea of the majestic vegetation of the tropics. But the rich development of our language, the glowing fancy of the poet, and the imitative art of the painter, afford us abundant compensation ”

“ Problems which have long baffled the geologist in his own northern region, find their solution in the vicinity of the equator. If, as we have already observed, remote regions do not present us with new formations, that is to say, with unknown groupings of simple substances, they at least help us to unravel the great and universal laws of nature, by showing how different strata of the crust of the earth are mutually superimposed on, and intersect, each other in the form of veins, or rise to different elevations in obedience to elastic forces. ”

“ The mode of capturing the gymnotus affords a picturesque spectacle. A number of mules and horses are driven into a swamp, which is closely surrounded by Indians, until the unusual noise excites the daring fish to venture on an attack. Serpent-like they are seen swimming along the surface of the water, striving cunningly to glide under the bellies of the horses. By the force of their invisible blows numbers of the poor animals are suddenly prostrated; others, snorting and panting, their manes erect, their eyes wildly flashing with terror, rush madly from the raging storm ”

“ Even the vivifying pollen scattered abroad by the male blossoms, is carried by winds and winged insects over sea and land, to the distant and solitary female plant [74] . Thus, wheresoever the naturalist turns his eye, life or the germ of life lies spread before him.
But if the moving sea of air in which we are immersed, and above whose surface we are unable to raise ourselves, yields to many organic beings their most essential nourishment, they still require therewith a more substantial species of food, which is provided for them only at the bottom of this gaseous ocean. ”

“ Why is it that in the temperate and cold zones this morbid eagerness for eating earth is so much less frequently manifested, and is indeed limited almost entirely to children and pregnant women, whilst it would appear to be indigenous to the tropical lands of every quarter of the earth? In Guinea the negroes eat a yellowish earth, which they call caouac; and when they are carried as slaves to the West Indies they even endeavour there to procure for themselves some similar species of food, maintaining that the eating of earth is perfectly harmless in their African home. ”

“ If we consider the enormous quantity of Mollusca which animate all tropical seas, we can hardly wonder that sea-water should be luminous, even where no fibres can be visibly separated from it. From the endless subdivision of the masses of dead Dagysæ and Medusæ the whole ocean may, in fact, be regarded as a fluid containing gelatine, and, as such, luminous and of a nauseous taste; unfit for the use of man, but capable of affording nourishment to many species of fish. ”

“ All formations are, therefore, common to every quarter of the globe and assume the like forms. Everywhere basalt rises in twin mountains and truncated cones; everywhere trap-porphyry presents itself to the eye under the form of grotesquely-shaped masses of rock, while granite terminates in gently rounded summits. ”

“ Shrouded in dark clouds of dust, and tortured by hunger and burning thirst, oxen and horses scour the plain, the one bellowing dismally, the other with outstretched necks snuffing the wind, in the endeavour to detect, by the moisture in the air, the vicinity of some pool of water not yet wholly evaporated. ”