xlii ANNUAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND 



Whymper, if it be proper to include that country in the New 

 World. Important facts have been brought to light by this 

 gentleman in regard to the great glacial sheet covering the 

 land, the altitudes of various peaks, the natural history, re- 

 cent and fossil, and the ethnology of the country. 



Alaska has also been explored by Mr. Wm. H. Dall, in con- 

 nection with his labors on the United States Coast Survey, 

 while engaged in making surveys of the shores and harbors 

 of the Aleutian Islands. He has used the leisure at any time 

 at his command in gathering a very rich collection in nat- 

 ural history and ethnology. Other explorations have also 

 been made, by Mr. Henry W. Elliot, in the adjacent group of 

 the Fur-Seal Islands. 



We have already referred to the geological work prose- 

 cuted in the Rocky Mountains by different parties ; and the 

 same expeditions have been equally noteworthy in their rela- 

 tionship to geographical science. A large unknown or pre- 

 viously unexplored region has been plotted down and brought 

 within the scope of our geographical knowledge, so that the 

 terra incognita of the great West is rapidly diminishing. 

 The renewed explorations anticipated for the coming year 

 w T ill tend to relieve us still more from the opprobrium of ig- 

 norance in regard to our own country. 



The survey of the boundary between the United States and 

 British America, west of Lake Superior, was prosecuted till 

 the close of the season, after which the parties went into 

 winter quarters. It is expected that in the coming season 

 they will carry the line of demarkation many miles to the 

 West. 



The labors of the United States government in reference 

 to the establishment of practicable routes for ship canals in 

 Central America have been continued industriously during 

 the year, Nicaragua, Tehuantepec, and the Isthmus of Darien 

 all receiving due attention. Although no very practicable 

 route has been discovered, or, at least, none pre-eminently su- 

 perior to all the rest, it is hoped that the labors of the com- 

 ing season will tend to narrow the choice to be made, and to 

 concentrate attention upon that which will prove to be most 

 available under the circumstances. 



Professor Hartt during the past year returned to Brazil 

 for the third or fourth time, to prosecute investigations in 



