146 REAR-ADMIRAL F. W. BEECHEY'S ADDRESS. [May 26, 1856. 



on the Mississippi to St. John's, Newfoundland, a distance of about 

 2000 miles. 



West Indies. — A plan of Port Escoces and Caledonia harbour, sur- 

 veyed by Messrs. Parsons and Dillon, has been published by the 

 Admiralty during the past year. These officers have recently been 

 engaged in the examination of the islands of Santa Cruz and St. 

 Lucia, the former of which is finished and the latter far advanced. 



South America. — On the coast of Brazil the dangerous shoal known 

 by the Portuguese name of As Roccas^ lying about 120 miles west of 

 Tristan d'Acunha, has been visited by Lieut. Parish, in II.M.S. 

 ' Sharpshooter,' and, at the suggestion of the British Consul at 

 Pemambuco, cocoa-nuts have been planted in the sand, with the hope 

 that at no distant day they may by their growth serve to warn the 

 mariner of his approach to a danger on which doubtless many a 

 vessel has met its fate. 



Rio de la Plata. — In this river, above Buenos Ayres, Lieut. Sidney, 

 with slight means at his command, has re-examined the approach 

 to the river Parana, and re-sounded the shoals in the vicinity of 

 Martin Garcia. The whole of this vast estuary requires a care- 

 ful survey. During the past year a sketch-chart of the river Para- 

 guay from Corrientes upwards to Asuncion, by Lieut. Day, e.n., on 

 the scale of one inch to a mile, has been published by the Admiralty ; 

 and, on a much smaller scale, the upper part of the river as high as 

 Coimbra, from Portugixese authorities. 



In the Falkland Islands a plan of Port Egmont, one of the many 

 safe harbours in that group, surveyed by Capt. Sulivan, c.b., in 

 1849, has recently been published on a large scale, and may prove 

 useful to the numerous whalers and other vessels which occasionally 

 resort to those islands. 



France. — I learn from my zealous and intelligent correspondent, 

 Mr. J. B. Pentland, that the Depot General de la Guerre has continued 

 the publication of its great Map of France, 9 sheets of which hayc 

 been published during the past year. This magnificent work will 

 consist of 258 sheets, of which 175 have been already engraved. 

 The geodesic operations of this work being concluded, it is proposed 

 to determine astronomically the longitudes or meridian distances of 

 the several trigonometrical stations by means of the electric tele- 

 graph ; a body of officers appointed for that purpose, under Com- 

 mandant Koget, are now engaged in the preliminary researches at 

 the Imperial Observatory of Paris. 



