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HOMBOLDT 41 of wealth. Petroleum lias been found in the S. part. The streams swarm with salmon. The chief productions in 1870 were 32,284 bushels of wheat, 137,022 of oats, 31,907 of barley, 54,316 of peas and beans, 372,924 of potatoes, 112,580 Ibs. of butter, 51,867 of wool, and 7,426 tons of hay. There were 4,329 horses, 5,691 milch cows, 12,056 other cattle, 12,660 sheep, and 10,050 swine ; 3 manufac- tories of carriages, 1 flour mill, and 8 saw mills. Capital, Eureka. III. A N. W. county of Nevada, bordering on Oregon; area, 19,000 sq. in. ; pop. in 1870, 1,916, of whom 220 were Chinese. The surface is generally mountain- ous, the E. portion being occupied by the Hum- boldt range. Humboldt, Reese, and Quins rivers, and other streams that lose themselves in " sinks," or lakes without outlet, water por- tions of the county. There are several lakes in the W. part. On Hnmboldt river and in Para- dise and other valleys is some arable land, and the hills afford grazing ; but the chief wealth is in the silver mines, which are mostly 8. of the Humboldt river. Gold, copper, and lead are also found. By the census of 1870, 14 mines were returned, of which 12 were of sil- ver, 1 of gold, and 1 of lead. There were 10 quartz mills, all except one for the production of silver. It is traversed by the Central Pa- cific railroad. The chief productions were 4,419 bushels of wheat, 30,209 of barley, 5,504 of potatoes, and 2,219 tons of hay. There were 365 horses, 2,186 cattle, 700 sheep, and 786 swine. Capital, Unionville. HIMBOLDT, Frledrleh Ilciiirich Alexander TOD, baron, a German naturalist, born in Berlin, Sept. 14, 1769, died there, May 6, 1859. He was less than ten years old at the death of his father, who had been adjutant of Duke Ferdi- nand of Brunswick in the seven years' war, and afterward a Prussian royal councillor. He and his elder brother Wilhelm were edu- cated at home, with special care in the natural sciences. In 1787 he studied at the university of Frankfort-on-the-Oder, returned to Berlin in the following year, and applied himself to the technology of manufactures and to the Greek language. An acquaintance with the botanist Willclenow led him to study the cryp- togamous plants and the family of grasses. He passed a year (1789-'90) at the university of Gottingen, studying philology under Heyne, and extending his knowledge of natural history under the guidance of Blumenbach, Lichten- berg, and others. His first published work, the fruit of an excursion from the university, was Ueber die Basalte am Shein, ndist Unter- gvcJmngen utter Syenit und Basanit der Alten (Berlin, 1790). A rapid journey which he made in 1790, in company with George For- ster, through the Low Countries, England, and France, gave him a desire to visit the tropics. He returned to Germany with the purpose of devoting himself to finance, and repaired to a mercantile academy at Hamburg, where he learned bookkeeping, familiarized himself with counting-house affairs, and practised the modern languages. On a visit to his mother in the following year he obtained permission to engage in practical mining ; and he went to the mining academy at Freiberg, where for eight months he enjoyed the private in- struction of Werner and the friendship of Freiesleben, Von Bnch, and Del Rio, the last of whom 12 years later he found settled in Mexico. He wrote while there a description of the subterranean flora and an account of his experiments on the color of plants withdrawn from the light and surrounded by irrespirable gases, entitled Flora Subterranea Fribergentis, et Aphorismi ex Physiologia Cfiemiea Planta- rum, which first appeared in 1793. With Frei- esleben he made the first geognostic descrip- tion of one of the Bohemian mountain ranges. In 1792 he was appointed assessor in the mi- ning department, and subsequently became superior mining officer in the Fichtelgebirge. In 1793-'4 he explored the mining districts in Upper Bavaria, Galicia, and various parts of Prussia. In 1794 he accompanied the minister Hardcnberg to Frankfort, and was employed in his cabinet correspondence. On his return he experimented on the nature of fire-damp in mines. In 1795 he made a geognostic jour- ney through Tyrol, Lombardy, and Switzer- land. In 1796 he was sent on a mission to the headquarters of Gen. Moreau in Swabia. From the time when he first heard of Gal- vani's discovery he had accumulated materials for his work Ueber die gereizte Mialcel- und Nercenfaser, nebst Vermuthungen uber den chemischen Process de Lebens in der Thier- und Pflanaenwelt (2 vols., Berlin, l797-'9). He also familiarized himself with practical astronomy, especially with the use of the sex- tant for determining geographical positions. On the death of his mother he resolved to prosecute his purpose of a great scientific expedition. Leaving Baireuth in 1797, he passed three months at Jena,' and then be- gan a second journey to Italy, with a desire to see the volcanoes Vesuvius, Stromboli, and Etna. The disturbed condition of Italy made his purpose impracticable, and he passed the winter in Salzburg and Berchtesgaden, occu- pied with meteorological observations. There ho accepted the invitation of Lord Bristol to accompany him on an excursion to Upper Egypt, intending also to proceed to Syria and Palestine. He visited Paris to procure the requisite scientific instruments, but in May, 1798, he learned that Lord Bristol had been arrested at Milan charged with having secret political designs in Egypt. Remaining in Paris, ho became intimate with the future companion of his travels, the young botanist Bonpland. At this time the public were inter- ested in the voyage of circumnavigation which the directory had decreed and put under the command of Capt. Baudin. The expedition was to explore the E. and W. coasts of South America from Buenos Ayres to Panama, to