of mountains covered with verdure, but its distance forbids
examination, and the view serves only to excite regret.

Journeys by land are attended with considerable difficulties in the
conveyance of instruments and collections, but these difficulties
are compensated by advantages which it is unnecessary to enumerate.
It is not by sailing along a coast that we can discover the
direction of chains of mountains, and their geological
constitution, the climate of each zone, and its influence on the
forms and habits of organized beings. In proportion to the extent
of continents, the greater on the surface of the soil are the
riches of animal and vegetable productions; the more distant the
central chain of mountains from the sea-shore, the greater is the
variety in the bosom of the earth, of those stony strata, the
regular succession of which unfolds the history of our planet. As
every being considered apart is impressed with a particular type,
so, in like manner, we find the same distinctive impression in the
arrangement of brute matter organized in rocks, and also in the
distribution and mutual relations of plants and animals. The great
problem of the physical description of the globe, is the
determination of the form of these types, the laws of their
relations with each other, and the eternal ties which link the
phenomena of life, and those of inanimate nature.

Having stated the general object I had in view in my expeditions, I
will now hasten to give a slight sketch of the whole of the
collections and observations which we have accumulated, and the
union of which is the aim and end of every scientific journey. The
maritime war, during our abode in America, having rendered
communication with Europe very uncertain, we found ourselves