146 ANNUAL KECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



through the country of the Chuchumayo Indians, a wild and 

 but little. known tribe. According to the report of the chief 

 of the expedition, dated October 26, the river was found to be 

 completely unobstructed, and navigable to within a distance 

 of only fifty-eight leagues from Lima, so that water commu- 

 nication with the Atlantic becomes practicable by that route 

 in half the time now required to pass round Cape Horn. The 

 river is one hundred yards wide, and from three to five fath- 

 oms in depth, up to a point where a convenient route across 

 the Andes from Lima would strike it. 



In the course of the expedition an Indian camp was met 

 with, in which was a house twenty yards long, sixteen yards 

 w T ide, and fifteen yards high. In this they found a sort of 

 furnace for smelting iron, which was of a square form, about 

 two yards high, and one and three quarter yards each way, 

 constructed of bricks half a yard long. The fire was furnish- 

 ed with two double bellows, the fuel used being coal and 

 w r ood, mixed w T ith pounded ore. A considerable quantity of 

 cast-iron w r as found, and a number of articles of unusual ex- 

 cellence of construction. None of the Indians themselves 

 were met with. Panama Star and Herald, Dec. 17, 1870. 



EXPLORATION OF PEOFESSOE HAETT. 



Our readers have been kept advised, through the papers, 

 of the movements of Professor Hartt's third visit to Brazil 

 instituted, in part, for the purpose of enriching the cabinet of 

 Cornell University and have been informed of its safe return 

 on the 2 2d of December last. We learn that, besides making 

 extensive collections in all departments of natural science, 

 the exploration has brought to light several new features in 

 regard to the geology and physical geography of the valley. 

 The great Amazonian forest, according to Mr.Hartt, does not 

 cover the whole district from the Andes to the Atlantic, and 

 the mountains of Guiana on the north to the plateaus of Mi- 

 nas Geraes on the south, but consists of a comparatively nar- 

 row fringe overgrowing the lowlands, or flats, bordering the 

 banks of the river and its affluents, while the intervening re- 

 gion is composed of grass-covered campos almost impercep- 

 tibly swelling from the alluvial intervals, dotted here and 

 there by groups of palms muriti and carara presenting 

 a singular feature in the distribution of Amazonian forests, 



