108 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



ney of Count Micklucbo Maciay, to which we have referred 

 in a previous article. This, as already stated, has for its ob- 

 ject the investigation of the islands of the Pacific Ocean; and 

 the latest advices were received from Valparaiso on the 30th 

 of May last. The corvette Witjas, carrying the party, was 

 then on its way to New Guinea, which they hoped to reach 

 within three months. The occasion of'a brief halt of the ves- 

 sel at Valparaiso was taken to visit Santiago, and thence the 

 northern portion of the province of Aconcagua, this being a 

 mountain 6834 metres in height, and considered for a long 

 time to be volcanic, but, as was ascertained by the investiga- 

 tions of Piscis, having no volcanic peculiarities whatever. 

 3 C\ xxxvi., September 4, 1871, 861. 



MARSHALL ISLANDS. 



The Hydrographic Office of the bureau of Navigation of 

 the United States has lately published a monograph upon the 

 Marshall group of islands in the North Pacific. This group 

 consists of two chains of islands, lying nearly parallel with 

 each other, and running northwest and southeast from lati- 

 tude 1150'N. to 4 30' N., and from longitude 167 E. to 173 

 E., covering an area of over 350 by 400 miles in extent, and 

 very little known to navigators, the information hitherto on 

 record being considered very unreliable. The eastern chain 

 is known as the Radack, and the western as the Ralick, each 

 numbering from fifteen to eighteen groups of low coralline 

 islands, the greater number of which are fully formed atolls 

 that is, lagoons of greater or less extent with deep water 

 and anchorages, surrounded by a chain of reefs, connecting 

 islands, with one or more passages through the reefs into the 

 lagoons, most of which are navigable for large vessels, besides 

 which there are numerous boat passages. 



The earliest discovery of this archipelago is said to have 

 been by Laevedra in 1529, and the next visit made to them 

 was by Anson in 1742. Since then the islands have been 

 touche'd at by different navigators at various times, although 

 until the appearance of the report just referred to but little 

 definite information had been brought together of the archi- 

 pelago as a group. A missionary establishment was started 

 on one of these islands in 1857, which continues to be suc- 

 cessful to the present time. The inhabitants numbered, at 



