Weekly hawk-eye and telegraph. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1855-1857, 1856-07-23
H.mbslat and Ere.nsns.

!. HnmboIdt and Fremont.
Among the scientific honors paid to Colone
Fremont, as pioneer Of american discovery
certainly not the least notable was that confer
red BY the King of Prussia in " the great Colder
Medal of Progress in the Science The ulanne
Of its communication added rare value to tn,
gift II was sent with a most complimentar,
letter of Baron Humboldt, who took occasion ie
add the warmest expressions of his own person
al respect and admiration. As this letter ha.
apparently been overlooked in the notices re
Gently made Of Fremont by the press, we avail
ourselves Of the advance sheets Of the new Biog'
| raphy in the course of publication by Derby 4
/ Co., Of New York, to lag it before our readers.
One sentence Of Hnmboldtss letter we have
| marked in italics it was conscientious tribute
paid to the Senator then; it is highly significant
of Fremon's :. friendship to liberty and to the
progress of Intelligence n,ao1.
The following is the English translation Of
Baron Humboldt's letter:
!" To Colonel Fremont. Senator:
at is very agreeable to me, sir, to address
lister to the United States, NJ. de Gerolt. After
having given you in the new edition of my As
poets Of Nature the public testimony Of the ad-
miration which is due to your gigantic labors be-
tween St. Louis, of Missouri, and the coast of
the South Sea, feel happy to offer you, in this
living token tdans petit signe de ris) the hom-
age of my warm acknowledgment. You have
displayed noble courage in distant expeditions,
braved all the dangers of cold and famine, en-
riched all the branches of the natural sciences,
illustrated a vast country which was almost en-
tirely unknown to us.
"A merit SO rare has been acknowledged by
sovereign warmly interested in the progress Of
physical geography; the King orders met to offer
you the grand golden medal destined to those
who have labored at scientific progress. hope
that this mark Of the Royal good WILL will be
agreeable to you at time when, upon the prop
osition of the illustrious geographer, Chas Rit-
ter, the Geographical Society at Berlin has nam
ed you an honorary member. For myself, I
must thank you particularly also for the honor
which you have done in attaching my name and
that of my fellow-laborer and intimate friend,
Mr.. Bonplain, to countries neighboring to those
which have been the object of our iabors-
California, ,rich has so nobiy resisted the intro
duction Of slavery, nil be acorhily represented by
a friend of liberty and of the progress of intelH.
gence.
'Accept, pray you, sir, the expression Of my
high and affectionate consideration.
''Your most humble and most abedient servant,
"a. v. HUMBoLDr.
s'SANs SoUc1, October Z, 1885,"
On the envelope thus addressed:
ITO Colonel Fremont, Senator,
With the great Golden Medals
"For progress in the sciences.
"BARoS HUMBOLDT"
The following is the public testimony of the
Baron's admiration of the gigantic labors of
Fremont, referred to in the letter, as contai ned
in the new or third edition of his Aspects of
Nature, and which, as reference, becomes
natural appendant to the letter:
"Fremonts map and geographical investiga
tions comprehend the extensive region from the
junction of the Kansas river with the Missouri
to the falls of the Columbia, and to the missions
of Santa Barbara and Puebla de los Angeles, in
New California; or space of % degrees Of lon
gtude, and from the Saith to the 45th parallel of
latitude. -Four hundred points have been de-
termined hyposometrically by barometic obser-
vations, and, for the most part, geographically
by astronomical observations; so that district
which, with the windings of the route, amounts
TO S,oOO geographical mics, from inc mouth Oh
the Kansas to Fort Van Couver &nd the shores
of the Pacific (almost 72O miles more than the
distance from Madrid to Toboisk, has been rep
resented in profile, showing the relative heights
above the level of the sea.
GAS was, believe, the first person who un-
dertook to represent, in geognostic profile, the
form of entire countres-such as the Iberian,
peninsula the high lands of Mexico, and the
Cordilleras of South America, (the semi-perspec-
Chappe, were founded ON mere and generally
estmations Of the fall of rivers)- has
given me peculiar pleasure to see the geographical
method of representing the form of the earth in
vertical direction, or the elevations Of the solid
portion of our planet above its watery covering,
applied on so grand scale as has been done in
Fremont's map"