1836 Andriveau Goujon Comparative Mountains and Rivers Chart

This is Andriveau and Goujon's 1838 comparative mountains and rivers chart. This extraordinary chart is considered the highest expression of the mountains and rivers convention as developed in the 19th century. No mountains and rivers chart before or after presents such a vast, detailed, and beautifully rendered tableau. Although roughly based upon Bulla's 1826 Tableau Comparatif, Andriveau and Goujon here develop the comparative mountains and rivers chart considerably by adding numerous topographical and geological notations, updating the older chart with new information, redrawing the waterfalls section, incorporating textual data to either side of the chart proper, and adding a sub sea level element. Even the ballooning feat of Gay-Lussac who attained an altitude of 7000 meters in 1808 is noted.

The comparative mountains section, occupying the lower right half of this chart, details the principle mountains of the world. Ranges are color coded to show different types of vegetation and numerically reference tables to the left and right of the chart proper. The elevations of several important cities including Paris, Rome, London, Geneva, Mexico, Bogota, and Quito, among others, are noted. There are also extensive annotations on vegetation, volcanic activity, and lichen, much of which is no doubt influenced by Humboldt. The Himalayan peak Dhaulagiri is identified as the world's greatest mountain. A waterfall chart occupies the extreme bottom right with the Pyrenean waterfall of Gavarnie identified as the world's highest.

The upper left portion of this chart is dominated by the world's greatest rivers. Andriveau and Goujon attempt not only to express the lengths of the various rivers, but also details regarding their course and sources. All along each river important lakes, cities, directions, and distance measurements are noted. Here the Amazon is identified as the world's greatest river at 1507 km, followed by the Mississippi at 1687 km. The Nile comes up a sad third at 1611 km even though its full length had yet to be explored.

This is a rare opportunity to own one of the finest comparative mountains and rivers charts to appear in the 19th century. It was prepared for issue in Andriveau-Goujon's Atlas de Choix ou Recueil de Cartes de Geographie Ancienne et Modern. There are several states of this map, some of which are dated as early as 1829, but there is little difference in actual content between states.