ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 13 



exclusive people. No scientific observations of any moment were mad at 

 this visit of the U. S. Squadron. 



The American Exploring Expedition to the North Pacific, sailed in May, 

 1853. The fleet consists of the sloop of war Vincennes, the steamer John 

 Hancock, the brig Porpoise, the schooner Fenimore Cooper, and the clip- 

 per John Kennedy. These five vesssls are placed under the command of 

 Commodore Cadwaller Bingold, and are fitted out with the best instruments 

 procurable in the United States or in Europe. The expedition is expected 

 to be absent about three years. The scientific observers who go out with it 

 have orders to explore as minutely as shall be found convenient the shores 

 of Asia and America bordering on the Northern Pacific and Behring's 

 Straits. The surveys will also extend to the Japan Islands andWate:s, 

 the Gulf of Tartary, the shores of Kamtschatka, the Sea Okhotsk, and all 

 the isles and islands in those latitudes, including the Aleutian Islands and 

 the Sandwich Islands. 



Commander Lynch, U. S. Navy, despatched by Government during the 

 year 1852, on a preliminary expedition of observation to Western Africa, 

 preparatory to an exploring expedition, has returned during the past year. 

 He was on the coast of Liberia and that vicinity from early in January to 

 late in March, and explored all the rivers of the region. He found none 

 navigable more than 21 miles above the mouth. He is possessed of no very 

 exalted idea of the feasibility of white colonization of the West Coast of 

 Africa, even in a temporary way, and for commercial purposes only. Capt. 

 L. intimates that there is but a single Englishman known to have survived 

 the climate of Sierra Leone for five years, at the end of which time the 

 fever carried him off. It will be recollected that perhaps 40 years since 

 the Portuguese colonized an island in the immediate vicinity of Guinea, 

 sending thither 7,000 souls. At this time there is but a single individual 

 living in whose veins the blood of any of these colonists is believed to 

 course. This is a fact making stubbornly indeed, against the "idea of a 

 much more profitable trade with Africa, as the result of any possible effort 

 of our Government to compass that end. 



An expedition for the exploration of the interior of Australia, has been 

 projected by the British Government. It is placed under the direction of 

 Mr. Ernest Haug, and the party accompanying him will be provided with 

 every requisite necessary to insure a successful result. It appears that the 

 great unknown interior of this continent can be most safely reached by 

 making a starting point from the mouth of the great navigable river, the 

 Victoria, on the north-west coast, where Capt. Stokes, of H. M. S. the 

 Beagle, so far explored it as to arrive at within about 500 miles of the 

 centre of the continent. Capt. Stokes was obliged to return for want of 

 sufficient resources ; but he ascended far enough to satisfy himself of the 



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