GEOGRAPHY AND ANTIQUITIES. 383 



Capt. Stansbury has since returned home, and a detailed report of his 

 operations will probably be soon published. 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS ON THE PACIFIC. 



AN exploring commission, made up of officers of the Army and 

 Navy, has examined the whole coast of California, north of San Fran- 

 cisco, and of Oregon as far as the parallel of 49. Among other 

 things, coal was found to exist in immense quantities all around Bea- 

 ver Harbour, on the northeast part of Vancouver's Island, and on the 

 main land obliquely opposite and still to the northward. Its quality 

 for steaming purposes was found to be excellent. 



In the course of these examinations, a party was despatched to visit 

 carefully a large and well-sheltered harbour, known as Shoalwater 

 Bay, and having its entrance some thirty miles north of Cape Disap- 

 pointment. The prosecution of this service confirmed the fact, that the 

 waters of the harbour and those of the mouth of the Columbia ap- 

 proach each other within a very short distance. The average length 

 of the Bay is some twenty miles, and its breadth some six or eight. 

 The bar at its entrance is understood to present no serious obstacle to 

 the admission of ships of the largest class, at all seasons of the year. 

 But one of the most remarkable features of this place is, that a ship 

 may probably approach Baker's Bay, or Cape Disappointment, via its 

 entrance, within some six or eight miles. California Courier. 



PROGRESS OF NAVIGATION. 



AT the meeting of the American Association at Charleston, Lieut. 

 Maury, in some remarks on the influence of the Gulf Stream upon nav- 

 igation,* said that he had in his possession the log-book of a West In- 

 dia trader in 1746, \vhich showed that her average rate of sailing per 

 loo- was about one mile the hour. The instruments of navigation 



o " 



then were rude ; chronometers were unknown, and lunars were im- 

 practicable ; it was no uncommon thing for vessels in those days, w r hen. 

 crossing the Atlantic, to be out of their reckoning 5, 6, and even 

 10, and when it was announced that a vessel might know, by consult- 

 ing the water thermometer, when she crossed the eastern edge of the 

 Gulf Stream, and again when she crossed the western edge, naviga- 

 tors likened the discovery to the drawing of blue and red streaks in the 

 water, by which they might when crossed be able to know their lon- 

 gitude. 



The merchants of Providence, R. I., when Dr. Franklin was in 

 London, sent a petition to the Lords of the Treasury, asking that the 

 Falmouth (England) packets might run to Providence instead of to 

 Boston ; for they maintained that, though Boston and Falmouth were 

 between Providence and London, yet that practically they were much 

 further apart ; for they showed that the average passage of the Lon- 

 don traders to Providence was fourteen days less than that of the 



* See Annual of Scientific Discovery, 1S39, p. 163. 



