GEOGRAPHY. 339 



region ; and Dr. Edwin R. Heath, of Wisconsin, has undertak- 

 en the exploration of the Beni and Madre de Dios rivers in 

 continuation of the work which the untimely death of Pro- 

 fessor James Orton left uncompleted. 



Before the French Geographical Society, Professor C. Wie- 

 ner has given an account of his explorations in Peru and Bo- 

 livia, undertaken at the cost of the French government. He 

 journeyed about 9000 miles, crossing the western chain of the 

 Cordilleras five times at considerable heights, and ascended 

 to the summit of Illimani, a height of 20,118 feet above sea- 

 level. M. Wiener's collections were mostly archaeological, 

 and were of great interest. They will be placed in the Pa- 

 lais d'lndustrie at Paris. 



Original maps of a part of Bolivia, in seven sheets, on a 

 scale of fifteen inches to a degree, have been made by Mr. 

 J. B. Minchin, C.E., and the late Commander Musters, R.N., 

 the latter of whom communicated to the Royal Geographical 

 Society, shortly before his death, the results of observations 

 made during three years' residence and journeying, mostly 

 confined to the Altaplanicie, or great table-land of the An- 

 des, and the spurs and valleys of the Eastern Cordillera. 



An abstract of late Chilian surveys in the Chonos Archipel- 

 ago, by Dr. Martin, is given in Petermann's Mittheilungen, 

 No. 12. The islands are described as over 1000 in number, 

 and as very mountainous and separated by channels more 

 than 100 fathoms deep. 



For several months past Mr. F. A. A. Simons has been ex- 

 ploring the cluster of mountains known as the Sierra Nevada 

 de Santa Marta, near the coast of New Granada, a little to 

 the eastward of the mouth of the Mao-dalena River. Al- 

 though his special object is the study of natural history, he 

 has done, and is still doing, valuable work in determining 

 heights of various mountain-peaks, with hypsometrical instru- 

 ments furnished by the Royal Geographical Society. 



AFRICA. 



One of the most striking features in connection with Afri- 

 can geography during the past year is the discovery of an 

 old globe at Lyons, showing the course of the Congo and 

 Nile rivers very much as they are laid down now on modern 

 maps from the labors of recent explorers. Besides this, a 



