hiefly directed to mineralogical pursuits. The fruit of
his observations appeared in a work, the first he ever published,
which was printed at Brunswick in 1790, when he was only twenty-one
years of age, entitled _Observations sur les Basaltes du Rhin_.

To extend his information, already very considerable, on mineralogical
science, Humboldt in 1791 repaired to Freyburg, to profit by the
instructions of the celebrated Werner; and, when there, he devoted
himself, with the characteristic ardour of his disposition, to make
himself master of geology and botany, and prosecuted in an especial
manner the study of the fossil remains of plants in the rocks around
that place. In 1792, he published at Berlin a learned treatise,
entitled _Specimen Florae, Friebergensis Subterraniae_; which procured
for him such celebrity, that he was soon after appointed
director-general of the mines in the principalities of Anspach and
Bayreuth, in Franconia. His ardent and philanthropic disposition there
exerted itself for several years in promoting, to the utmost of his
power, various establishments of public utility; among others, the
public school of Streben, from which has already issued many
distinguished scholars. Charmed by the recent and brilliant
discoveries of M. Galvani in electricity, he next entered with ardour
into that new branch of science; and, not content with studying it in
the abstract, he made a great variety of curious experiments on the
effects of galvanism on his own person, and published the result in
two octavos, at Berlin, in 1796, enriched by the notes of the
celebrated naturalist Bluemenbach. This work was translated into French
by J. F. Jadelot, and published at Paris in 1799. Meanwhile Humboldt,
consumed with an insatiable desire for travelling, resumed his
wanderings, and roamed over Switzerland and Italy, after which he
returned to Paris in 1797, and formed an intimacy with a congenial
spirit, M. Aime Bonpland; who afterwards became the companion of his
South American travels. At this time he formed the design of joining
the expedition of Captain Baudin, who was destined to circumnavigate
the globe; but the continuance of hostilities prevented him from
carrying that design into effect. Baffled in that project, upon which
his heart was much set, Humboldt went to Marseilles with the intention
of embarking on board a Swedish frigate for Algiers, from whence he
hoped to join Napoleon's expedition to Egypt, and cross f