Synthesized answer
Before Humboldt's travels and publications, the Equinoctial Regions of America were but imperfectly known to Europeans [2]. The knowledge that existed was chiefly derived from early navigators and some followers of the Spanish Conquistadores [2]. Geology as a science had little or no existence, and scarcely anything was understood about the structure of the Andes mountains. Beyond the knowledge of gold and silver mines, little was known of what lay beneath the earth in the New World [4].
Synthesized from the book passages below. Chat with the book on Feynman for follow-up.
From the book
teresting expedition to the Antilles and French Guiana, and the descriptions of which he has communicated to us. 1.I.4. ESSAY ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS, ACCOMPANIED BY A PHYSICAL TABLE OF THE EQUINOCTIAL REGIONS, FOUNDED ON MEASURES TAKEN FROM THE TENTH DEGREE OF NORTHERN TO THE TENTH DEGREE OF SOUTHERN LATITUDE. I have endeavoured to collect in one point of view the whole of the physical phenomena of that part of the New Continent comprised within the limits of the torrid zone from the level of the Pacific to the highest summit of the Andes; namely, the vegetation,…
Produced by Sue Asscher and Robert Prince Equinoctial Regions of America Alexander von Humboldt BOHN'S SCIENTIFIC LIBRARY. HUMBOLDT'S PERSONAL NARRATIVE VOLUME 1. PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF TRAVELS TO THE EQUINOCTIAL REGIONS OF AMERICA DURING THE YEARS 1799-1804 BY ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT AND AIME BONPLAND. TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT AND EDITED BY THOMASINA ROSS. IN THREE VOLUMES VOLUME 1. LONDON. GEORGE BELL & SONS. 1907. LONDON: PORTUGAL ST., LINCOLN'S INN. CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON, BELL AND CO. NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO.…
nces of declination; researches on the relative intensity of the light of the austral stars; geodesical measures, etc. Secondly, a treatise on the astronomical refractions in the torrid zone, considered as the effect of the decrement of caloric in the strata of the air; thirdly, the barometric measurement of the Cordillera of the Andes, of Mexico, of the province of Venezuela, of the kingdom of Quito, and of New Grenada; followed by geological observations, and containing the indication of four hundred and fifty-three heights, calculated according to the method of M. Laplace, and the…
ascended the Andes, contributed by their discoveries and collections to augment the vegetable riches of the Old World. But, in their time, geology as a science had little or no existence. Of the structure of the giant mountains of our globe scarcely anything was understood; whilst nothing was known beneath the earth in the New World, except what related to her mines of gold and silver. It remained for Humboldt to supply all that was wanting, by the publication of his Personal Narrative. In this, more than in any other of his works, he shows his power of contemplating nature in all…
plants hitherto imperfectly described. The plates of this work are all engraved according to the method followed by M. Labillardiere, in the Specimen Planterum Novae Hollandiae, a work remarkable for profound research and clearness of arrangement. After having distributed into separate works all that belongs to astronomy, botany, zoology, the political description of New Spain, and the history of the ancient civilization of certain nations of the New Continent, there still remained many general results and local descriptions, which I might have collected into separate treatises. I had,…