Humboldt, Friedrich Heinrich Alex., Baron von. Great traveler and naturalist. Born in Berlin, 1769. Devoted all his life to the study of nature in all its departments, traveling all over the continent. In 1799, with Aime Bonpland for companion, visited South America, traversed the Orinoco, and surveyed and mapped out in the course of five years: Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Mexico. Humboldt published the results in his "Travels." His chief work is the "Kosmos," or an account of the visible universe (in four volumes), originally delivered as lectures in Paris in the winter of 1827-28. He was a friend of Goethe, who held him in the highest esteem. Humboldt died in 1859.

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