A long study-table was full of books and papers.
"I had waited but a few moments when Humboldt came in; he was a smaller man than I had expected to see.

He was neater, more 'trig,' than the pictures represent him; in looking at the pictures you feel that his head is too large,--out of proportion to the body,--but you do not perceive this when you see him.
"He bowed in a most courtly manner, and told me he was much obliged to me for coming to see him, then shook hands, and asked me to sit, and took a chair near me.
"There was a clock in sight, and I stayed but half an hour.

He talked every minute, and on all kinds of subjects: of Dr.Bache, who was then at the head of the U.S.Coast Survey; of Dr.Gould, who had recently returned from long years in South America; of the Washington Observatory and its director, Lieutenant Maury; of the Dudley Observatory, at Albany; of Sir George Airy, of the Greenwich Observatory; of Professor Enke's comet reputation; of Argelander, who was there observing variable stars; of Mrs.Somerville and Goldschmidt, and of his brother.
"It was the period when the subject of admitting Kansas as a slave State was discussed--he touched upon that; it was during the administration of President Buchanan, and he talked about that.
"Having been nearly a year in Europe, I had not kept up my reading of American newspapers, but Humboldt could tell me the latest news, scientifically and politically.

To my ludicrous mortification, he told me of the change of position of some scientific professor in New York State, and when I showed that I didn't know the location of the town, which was Clinton, he told me if I would look at the map, which lay upon the table, I should find the town somewhere between Albany and Buffalo.
"Humboldt was always considered a good-tempered, kindly-natured man, but his talk was a little fault-finding.
"He said: 'Lieutenant Maury has been useful, but for the director of an observatory he has put forth some strange statements in the 'Geography of the Sea.' "He asked me if Mrs.Somerville was now occupied with pure mathematics.
He said: 'There she is strong.

I never saw her but once.