FROM THE MONTHLY REVIEW. Tableaux de la Nature, &c. i. e. Views of Nature, or Considerations on the Deserts, the Physiognomy of the Vegetables, and the Cataracts of the Oroonoko. By A. De Humboldt. Translated from the German, by J. B. B. Eyriès. 2 vols. 12mo. Paris. 1808. Price 10s. sewed. the Deserts. We learn from the preface that I. Considerations on the Steppes of several of the passages contained in these volumes, were composed on the very spots on which the scenes described were contemplated; that the author's object is to present such considerations on the interesting aspects of nature as best accord with genuine sentiment; and that, though each memoir is designed to form a whole, it is intended that the general bearing of the publication should be one and the same, "This method of treating natural history," observes M. Humboldt," presents great difficulties; such as even the energy and pliancy of the German language, in which I have written my work, have not always been able to overcome. The countless riches, which every where meet the eye of the observer, conjure up a multitude of images that are certainly brilliant, but, by their very accumulation, destroy the repose and injure the general impression which a grand survey of nature is calculated to produce. While we address sentiment and imagination, our style too readily degenerates into poetical prose. These ideas require no farther develop ment, since the ensuing pages will furnish us with too many examples of those wanderings and inequalities of which I have just indicated the source. Those elevated and naked plains, which stretch from the valleys of in South America, form a striking Caraccas and the lake of Tacarigua; and dreary contrast with the rich luxuriance and verdure of the more fortunate tracts by which they are surrounded. The irksome monotony of their aspect has, doubtless, condemned them to long and general obscurity: but a mind of a truly bold and philosophick tone, like that of the present author, is not to be diverted from its purposes by mere appearances, nor deprived of entertainment and instruction even in the midst of the barren wilderness. M. Humboldt's reflections on these imoften original, and seldom fail to mense and unsightly solitudes are affect either the imagination, or the understanding with grand or with agreeable emotions. We are perfectly aware, however, that we should have perused his dissertation with more uninterrupted satisfaction, if he had moulded his materials into one uniform and consistent mass, instead of detaching such a large and valuable portion of them into the form of supplementary annotations. We are likewise to regret, that his assertions are not always propounded with that degree of modesty and diffidence, which characterizes and adorns the productions of true genius. Thus he commences the present memoir by stating, without the shadow of evidence, that the granitick chain of mountains resisted the violent action of the waters, when, in the infancy of our planet, their irruption formed the gulph of Mexico. This physical event may have taken place, and in an early or a more advanced stage of the earth's existence: but we are not prepared to affirm that it did, and much less to assign the period of its occurrence. A remarkable trait in the great features of the American steppes is the presence of fractured and slight ly elevated horizontal strata, occasionally dispersed, and sometimes to a very considerable extent, over the common surface: but no oasis, nor scattered ruins, nor fruit trees which had once been cultivated, attest the residence of human beings. The comparative coolness of these regions suggests various pertinent remarks on the general temperature of the new continent, which sufficiently explain the moderation of its heat, without having recourse to the doctrine of the recent formation of the western hemisphere. The following illustrations of the author's argument against this common, but unphilosophical notion appear to be worthy of transcription: "The great coolness, or rather cold, which prevails, nearly throughout the year, along the coast of Peru, under the tropick and which lowers the mercury in the thermometer to ten degrees [54 1-2 Fahr.] is by no means, as I hope to be able to demonstrate, a consequence of the vicinity of mountains covered with snow, but is rather owing to that fog [garua] which veils the sun's disk, and to that very cold current of sea water which rushes, in a northerly direction, from the straits of Magellan to Cape Parinna. On the coast of Lima, the temperature of the great ocean is 12° 5' [about 59 Fahr.] whereas, under the same parallel, but beyond the limits of the current, it is 21° [79 Fahr.] It is remarkable that such a surprising act has not been hitherto noticed." We think that the powerful operation of each of the causes here adduced, cannot be disputed: but neither can we discern any sufficient reason for excluding the cooling influence of snow. "A very ingenious naturalist, Dr. Smith Barton, of America, has already said, with great justice, 'I cannot but regard as puerile, and by no means proved from physical evidence, the supposition that a great part of America has emerged from the waters later than the other continents.' I, continues M. Humboldt, beg leave also to quote a passage from a memoir, which I composed, respecting the primitive people of America. Writers of deserved celebri ty have too often repeated that America is in every sense of the expression, a new continent. They allege that its exuberance of vegetation, its assemblage of great rivers, and its grand volcanoes, always in a state of fermentation, declare that the earth, incessantly trembling, and not yet dried, is there less removed from the pristine condition of chaos than in the old continent. Long before I commenced my travels, I was accustomed to regard such notions as at once unphilosophical, and contrary to the generally received laws of physicks. Those images of youth and disorder on the one hand, and of desiccation, and a progressive failure of vigour in the aged earth on the other, can originate only in the minds of such persons as amuse themselves by selecting the points of contrast between the two hemispheres, without comprehending, in a general view, the constitution of our planet. Is the southern portion of Italy a fresher country than Lombardy, because it is almost constantly harassed by earthquakes and volcanick eruptions? Besides, what petty phenomena are the volcanoes and earthquakes of our day, if compared with those revolutions of nature, to which the geologist ascribes the solution and cooling of those masses which formed the mountains, when the earth was yet in a state of chaos! Different causes, in remote climates, would necessarily diversify the effects of physical energies. In the new world, the volcanoes, to the number of fifty four, ought, perhaps, to burn for a longer period, because the chain of eleva ted mountains, in which they are situated, is nearer to the sea; and because this circumstance, and the eternal snow which covers them, appear to modify, in a manner hitherto imperfectly appreciated, the energy of subterraneous fire. Earthquakes and eruptions there co-operate periodically. At present, physical disorder, and political tranquillity, reign in the new continent; while, in the old, the discord of nations drives us to seek repose in the bosom of nature. The time, perhaps, may come, when one quarter of the world will occupy the place of the other, in this singular conflict between physical and moral energy. Volcanoes repose for ages, before they are rekindled. The idea that, in the older regions of the world, a certain degree of peace should pervade nature, is a mere illusion of fancy. One side of our planet cannot be older or younger than another. Islands, like the Azores, produced by volcanoes, or gradually formed by the mollusca of coral (such as several islands of the great ocean) are generally more recent than the granitick masses ofthe central chain of Europe. A country of small extent, like Bohemia, and several of the valleys of the Moon, circularly surrounded by mountains, may remain for a long time covered by water, in consequence of partial inundations, and form a lake. After the fluid has disappeared, the soil, on which vegetation gradually takes place, may, in metaphorical language, be said to be newly formed. But such an aqueous covering, as the geologist conceives to have existed at the formation of the secondary mountains, cannot, from the laws of hydrostaticks, be supposed but as enveloping, at once, every country and every climate. The sea cannot sojourn on the immense plains of the Oroonoko and the Amazons, without, at the same time, ravaging the countries which are situated round the Bal tick. The dependence and the identity of the secondary strata in the neighbourhood of Caraccas, in Thuringia, and in Lower Egypt, prove, as I have explained in my geological view of South America, that this grand operation of nature was ef fected over all the earth at the same period." Besides the more obvious and permanent causes of the heat and aridity which pervade the African deserts, the author surmises that some remote irruption of the ocean may have swept away the vegetable soil, and left behind nothing but sterile sand: but, had such a catastrophe taken place, it is to be pre sumed that numerous vestiges of marine productions would be found scattered over, or buried in, those pathless wastes. Though the great Steppes in South America are covered with a thin layer of vegetable mould, though they are watered by periodical rains, and though they are clothed with gramineous plants, of tall and luxuriant growth, we cannot be surprised that the neighbouring inhabitants, who were originally strangers both to the pastoral and the agricultural life, should prefer the beautiful valleys of Caraccas, the sea coasts, and the immense basin of the Oroonoko, to a solitude which is destitute of trees and springs: but it is, at the same time, difficult to account for those numerous traces of civilisation, which have been observed on the elevated plains of the mountains in Mexico and Peru. At the height of sixteen or eighteen hundred toises, the author saw the remains of baths and palaces; and he infers, perhaps somewhat hastily, that none, but colonists from the north, could endure such a climate. Since the discovery of the new continent, even the Steppes have been found susceptible of a scanty degree of population. With the view of facilitating the communication between the coast and Guiana, some towns have been constructed on the banks of rivers; and, among widely and mules, may now be observed to scattered huts, herds of oxen, horses, roam at large, and to attain to a prodigious size, in spite of the dangers and difficulties with which they have to contend, from the extremes of drought and moisture. The effects and contrasts of these extremes are thus forcibly delineated: "When, in consequence of the sun's vertical rays, which no cloud intercepts, the hardened soil separates into fissures, as if it had been shaken by violent earthquakes; if opposing winds should then happen to impinge on its surface, and if the collision should occasion a rotary motion, the plain exhibits a most unusual spectacle. The sand rises like a vapour ficent season of rain at length approaches, the scene is suddenly changed in the desert. The dark blue of the sky, till then cloudless, assumes a lighter tint. At night, the spectator scarcely recognises the dim quarter of the cross, a constellation of the southern pole. The light phosphorescence of the clouds of Magellan loses its brilliancy. The vertical stars of the eagle and of the serpentarius, shine with a quivering light, which no longer resembles that of the planets. In the south, arise detached clouds, which bear the figure of remote mountains. The vapours extend like a mist over the whole horizon; and distant peals of thunder proclaim the vivifying rain. "Scarcely is the surface of the earth moistened, when the misty desert is cloth in the midst of a whirlwind, rarified, and perhaps, charged with electricity; resembling a funnel-shaped cloud, the point of which glides along the earth, or like the rushing water-spout that is dreaded by the experienced mariner. The sky, apparently let down, yields only a sombre, troubled, and livid light to the desolated plain. The horizon closes in, at once contracting the desert and the heart of man. Suspended in the atmosphere, which it veils in a thick cloud, the burning and dusty sand augments the suffocating heat of the air. The east wind, instead of coolness, adds fuel to the flame, by bringing along with it the glowing emanations of tracts of land which have been long scorched with heat. The pools, once shaded by the palm-tree, whose verdure has withered with Killingias and Paspalums, of crowded in the sun, gradually disappear. As animals become torpid in the ice and snow of the north, so here the crocodile and the boa, deeply buried in the dried clay, are incapable of motion. Aridity every where announces death, and every where haunts the parched traveller, whom the refracted rays of light delude with the phantom of a waving surface. Enveloped in clouds of dust, and tortured by hunger and burning thirst, the cattle and horses wander about in every direction. The latter, stretching out their necks against the wind, greedily inhale the air, in order to discover, by the moisture of its current, the neighbourhood of some pool that is not entirely evaporated. "The mules, more circumspect and artful, seek to assuage their thirst in another manner. The melocactus, a plant of a spherical form, and marked by numerous furrows, contains, under its prickly covering, a very watery core. The mule, by means of its fore feet, separates the spines, applies its lips with caution, and ventures to drink the refreshing juice: but it is not always with impunity that it partakes of this living vegetable source; for some of them are often seen, whose hoofs have been seriously injured by the prickles of the cactus. "To the scorching heat of the day, succeeds the coolness of a night which equals the day in duration: but still the cattle and the horses enjoy no repose. Monstrous bats persecute them in their sleep, cling like vampires to their backs, and afflict them with purulent wounds, in which hippoboscæ, musquitos, and a multitude of other stinging insects, take up their abode. Such is the painful existence of these animals, from the moment that the sun's heat has absorbed the water from the earth's surface. When, after a long drought, the bene VOL. III. Y ed panicles, and with an infinite number of grasses. The herbaceous mimosa unfolds its slumbering leaves to the light, and salutes the rising sun; as do also the aquatick plants, which expand their delicate blossoms, and the birds which warble their harmonious descants. The horses and cattle bound in the plain, and enjoy their existence. The prettily spotted jaguar lies concealed in the long tufted grass; and, by a light bound, like the cat, or the tyger of Asia, it darts on animals as they pass. 66 Sometimes, if we may believe the natives, the moistened clay on the borders of marshes is observed to rise slowly in small swellings; a sudden and violent noise, like that which proceeds from small mud volcanoes, is then heard; and the heaved soil is darted into the air like a cloud. Every person who is acquainted with this phenomenon, flies from it with precipitation; because he knows that some monstrous water-snake, or mailed crocodile, here issues from its tomb, and awakes from apparent death, with the first soaking showers. "The rivers which bound the plain on the south, the Araca, the Apura, and the Payara, gradually swell. Then nature compels those very animals which, during the first half of the year, seemed perishing with thirst on an arid and dusty soil, to lead the life of the amphibious tribes One part of the desert presents the image of an immense inland sea; and the mares retire, with their foals, to the higher stages, which appear above the surface of the water like long islands. As the unsubmerged portions daily diminish in extent, the animals, pressed against each other, and deprived of pasture, swim for a long while up and down, and pick a scanty subsistence from the flowering panicles of the gramineous plants, which overtop a brownish and fermenting water. Many young horses, however, are drowned; and many are surprised by the crocodile, which, armed with its tooth-crested tail, breaks their bones, and then devours them. Horses and oxen, which have escaped the voracity of this ferocious reptile, may often be observed to bear on their thighs the marks of its pointed teeth. "But jaguars and crocodiles are not the only creatures which, in South America, lie in wait for the horse. That animal also experiences a dangerous enemy among the fishes. The marshy streams of Bera and of Rastro are full of electrical eels, whose slimy body, dashed with yellowish spots, communicates, in every direction, and spontaneously, a violent shock. These gymnoti are five or six feet long; and, when they suitably direct the action of their organs, armed with an apparatus of multiplied nerves, they are able to kill the most robust animals. The people of Uritucu have been under the necessity of changing the road on the Steppe, because the number of these eels had increased to such a degree, that, in every year, many horses, struck with their benumbing influence, were drowned in crossing the ford of a small river. All fishes shun the approach of this formidable eel. It even frequently surprises men, who, standing on the steep bank, are fishing with a hook, the wetted line conveying the fatal commotion. In this instance, the electrical fire is disengaged from the very bottom of the waters." The sketch of the conterminous countries is not less animated and striking; and the whole picture constitutes a novel and interesting piece of descriptive scenery. In a note of considerable length, M.Humboldt seems to have established the extraordinary fact, that the practice of eating argillaceous earth really prevails among some savage tribes: but the inhumation and the suspended life of the crocodile require to be more amply and satisfactorily detailed, before we can receive the statement as an article of belief. II. Ideas of the Physiology of Vegetables. This essay occupies by far the largest portion of the second volume, but might have been much condensed, without the smallest injury to the proper treatment of the subject. The introduction, which extends over twenty pages of text, and thirty To a certain extent, it will be readily admitted that, while particular classes of rocks and mountains, in whatever regions of the world they may be found, are uniformly similar, the same species of plants and animals assume, especially in their groups, diversities of appearance in different climates. In his illustration of this position, M. de Humboldt pointedly alludes to the effects of climate on the formation of the human character and temper. It would be irksome to dwell on such a hacknied topick; but we really cannot concede to this writer that "the character of a people, and the gay or the grave dispositions of men, depend almost entirely on the influence of climate." His reference to Greece, in the first instance, to go no farther, is particularly unfortunate; for what have the genial heats and pure skies of that fine country achieved for its present wretched race of inhabitants? From an attentive survey of the vegetable forms which occur between the 55th parallel of north and the 12th of south latitude, the author is inclined to reduce them to nineteen; though in a subsequent passage he talks of the sixteen principal forms: yet he admits that future dsicoveries in the southeast parts of Asia, the interiour of Africa, New Holland, and that part of South America which is situated between the Amazons and the mountains of Chiquitas, will probably add to the number. In the mean time, we could have wished for a distinct nomenclature and definition of his family likenesses; since, although he mentions them in a desultory manner, his readers will find themselves puzzled to make out a list of his grand divisions. We suspect that his lines of demarcation also are sometimes fanciful. It is indeed to be presumed that all attempts to groupe the pro |