Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
BAXTERS PATENT OIL COLOR PRINTING
XI, NORTHAMPTON SQUARE
CHIMBORAZO
VIEWS OF NATURE:
OR CONTEMPLATIONS ON
THE SUBLIME PHENOMENA OF CREATION;
WITH
SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS.
PREFACE BY THE PUBLISHER.
Great pains have been taken with the present translation,as well in regard to fidelity and style, as in what may betermed the accessories. In addition to all that is containedin the original work, it comprises an interesting view ofChimborazo, from a sketch by Humboldt himself; a fac-simileof the author’s handwriting; head-lines of contents; translationsof the principal Latin, French, and Spanish quotations;[A]a very complete index; and a conversion of all the foreignmeasurements. It was at first intended to give both theforeign and English measurements, in juxta-position; but thisplan was abandoned on perceiving that the pages would becomeoverloaded with figures, and present a perplexing and somewhatappalling aspect, without affording any equivalent advantageto the English reader. In some few instances, however,where it seemed desirable, and in all the parallel tables,duplicate measurements have been inserted. The Frenchtoises are converted into their relative number of Englishfeet; and German miles, whether simple or square, are reducedto our own. The longitudes have been calculated fromGreenwich, conformably to English maps, in lieu of thosegiven by Humboldt, which are calculated from Paris. Thedegrees of temperature, instead of Reaumur’s, are Fahrenheit’s,as now the most generally recognised.
It here becomes necessary to say something of the translators,viand the cause of so much unexpected delay in producingthis volume; the more so as many of the subscribers to theScientific Library have expressed an interest in the subject,owing, in some measure, to a controversy which arose outof my previous publication of Cosmos. The translation wasoriginally entrusted to E. C. Otté, with an agreement as totime, according to which I had every reason to expect that Ishould fulfil my engagement to publish it in October last, orat latest in November; but, after much of the manuscript wasprepared, the translator’s indisposition a