4
4
洪堡从来不被这些问题所困扰。无论他到什么地方去，目的都是明确的，即：发掘事实，验以证之。
Humboldt had not been pursued by such questions. Everywhere he went, his mission was unambiguous: to discover facts and to carry out experiments towards that end.
在前往南美洲的船上，他已经展开研究。从西班牙航行到新格拉纳达，即今委内瑞拉海岸库马纳的途中，他每两个小时就测量一次海水的温度。他记录了六分仪所测出的数据，还在船尾系上一个鱼网，然后把当中他所看到或找到的所有海洋动物记录下来。他一踏上委内瑞拉的土地，就立即投入对库马纳一带植物的研究。库马纳这座城建立在石灰质岩的丘陵地上，丘陵上长满像蜡烛般的仙人掌，枝干延伸出去，像是长了一层苔藓的枝形烛台。一天下午，洪堡量了一种仙人掌的圆周，测出的数据是1.54米。他花了3个星期的时间，测量了海岸上更多的植物，然后就进入内地，转移到新安达卢西亚的深山进行探索。他领着一头驴子，驴子驮着一个六分仪、一支测量磁性变化的磁倾针、一个温度计和一个测量空气湿度的索绪尔湿度表（一种用毛发和鲸骨做成的仪器）。洪堡对这些仪器善加利用。他在自己的日记中写道：“我们一走进森林，气压计就显示，海拔高度增加了。在这里，树干形成了一个奇景：这里的草本植物长有轮状树枝，像蔓藤般生长到8至10英尺高，形成环圈，在我们的前路随风摇曳。大约下午3点，我们在一个叫做奎特普的小平原停下脚步，该平原海拔190突阿斯（突阿斯，长度单位，每突阿斯约等于1.95米）。平原上的几间茅屋旁有一条小溪，印第安人都认为小溪的水既清新又有益健康，我们发觉溪水的确很好喝，它的温度不过摄氏22.5度，而周围空气的温度是28.7度。”
Already on the ship carrying him to South America, he had begun his factual researches. He measured the temperature of the sea water every two hours from Spain to the ship's destination, Cumaná, on the coast of New Granada (part of modern Venezuela). He took readings with his sextant and recorded the different marine species that he saw or found in a net he had hung from the stern. And once he landed in Venezuela, he threw himself into study of the vegetation around Cumaná. The hills of calcareous rock on which the town stood were dotted with cacti and opunda, their trunks branching out like candelabras coated with lichen. One afternoon, Humboldt measured a cactus (Tuna macho ) and noted its circumference. It was 1.54 metres. He spent three weeks measuring many more plants on the coast, then ventured inland into the jungle-covered New Andalusia mountains. He took with him a mule bearing a trunk containing a sextant, a dipping needle, an instrument to calibrate magnetic variation, a thermometer and Saussure's hygrometer, which measured humidity and was made of hair and whalebone. He put the instruments to good use. In his journal he wrote: 'As we entered the jungle the barometer showed that we were gaining altitude. Here the tree trunks offered us an extraordinary view: a gramineous plant with verticillate branches climbs like a liana to a height of 8 to 10 feet, forming garlands that cross our path and swing in the wind. At about three in the afternoon we stopped on a small plain known as Quetepe, some 190 toises above sea level. A few huts stand by a spring whose water is known by the Indians to be fresh and healthy. We found the water delicious. Its temperature was only 22.5C while the air was 28.7C.'
