158 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



pers ; and we are glad to learn that he succeeded in making 

 many important discoveries in natural history and the geog- 

 raphy of the country, and especially the languages of the na- 

 tive tribes. By his researches in this latter direction he has 

 already become quite an authority, and, we presume, will be- 

 fore long begin to publish his linguistic results. In the course 

 of his expedition Professor Hartt took occasion to examine 

 the great Kjoekkenmoedding, near Santarem, referred to by 

 various travelers, which, however, yielded him only a few 

 fragments of coarse pottery and a few bones. He was very 

 fortunate in the opportunity of excavating the sites of a num- 

 ber of Indian villages on the edge of the bluffs bordering the 

 Amazon and the Tapajos, in the angle made by the two riv- 

 ers. Here he found an immense quantity of broken pottery, 

 often highly ornamented idols, stone implements, etc., prob- 

 ably derived from the Tapajos, now extinct as a tribe, or 

 merged into the mixed Indian population of the Amazon. 



In an ancient burial-place on the Tapajos he dug up a num- 

 ber of burial-pots, none, however, containing complete skele- 

 tons. An examination of the mounds of the island of Marajo 

 was to be made by some of his associates who remained be- 

 hind. -Letter. 



MERIDIAN FOE GEOGRAPHICAL' REFERENCE. 



Among other questions considered at the late Geographi- 

 cal Congress at Antwerp in August last was that of the 

 proper meridian for geographical reference. It is well known 

 that while many of the Germans still continue to use the me- 

 ridian of Ferro, the English adhere to that of Greenwich, and 

 the French to that of Paris. A curious compromise was sug- 

 gested, namely, to use Greenwich as the meridian for sea 

 charts, and Paris for land maps. 7 C, 1871, 575. 



DISCOVERIES IN PALESTINE. 



The operations of the British Palestine Exploration Socie- 

 ty continue to be prosecuted with much vigor and with very 

 successful results. In the month of January, the base-line 

 having been previously measured, the triangulation was car- 

 ried over nearly one hundred square miles, of which eighty 

 have been filled and laid down on the large sheets. The tri- 

 angulation included" Jaffa. Numerous identifications of 



