Tableaux de la nature, ou considérations sur les déserts, sur la physionomie des vegetaux et sur les cataractes de l'Orénoque. Traduit par J.B.Eyriès. 1828. (Reprint 2012, Cambridge Library Collection Earth Sciences). 538 p. gr8vo. Paper bd.

Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) madegroundbreaking contributions to the fields of geography, oceanography, climatology and ecology. In 1804, he returned from a five-year exploration of Latin America with an incredible wealth of specimens and data which provided the foundations for his theories on the natural order. He expounds them in this book, which was printed in German in 1808 before being translated by the geographer Jean-Baptiste Benoit Eyries (1767-1846)and published in French in 1828. Humboldt does more than provide descriptions of the great features and phenomena of the Earth, ranging from the geological character of immense plains and steppes to the structure and action of volcanoes. He combines a rigorous scientific approach with his emotional and aesthetic responses to the natural world, thereby constructing a true philosophy of nature.