Today was a holiday—Veteran's Day—and I stayed at home all day, venturing out only to go to my Spanish class in the evening. A storm came through, and we've had 1.68 inches of rain in the past 30 hours. My rainy day activities including pondering sparrows with the kitties and finishing the book Humboldt's Cosmos, by Gerard Helferich. Alexander von Humboldt was one of these amazing figures in natural history, making contributions to botany, geology, anthropology, and of course geography, he founding the field of plant geography. His drive as an explorer was incredible: I can't believe how he hauled the finest of scientific instruments and tens of thousands of specimens during five years of adventures in South America between 1799 and 1804. How nice to have the luxury to haul out the Times Atlas of the World and trace his route up the Orinoco and through the Andes.
Posted by Numenius at November 11, 2004 11:41 PM | TrackBackMichel de Botton's The Art of Travel has a wonderful chapter on Humboldt (as a paradigmatic "discoverer" in contrast to the "overdiscovered" world that tourists navigate). Curious if you've read it.
Amazon link over on the right bar in my blog.
Peace, Jarrett
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