May 26, 1856.] SOUTH AMERICA. 167 



pulation, &o. ;' with an original map and sections, which the author 

 has presented to our library. 



Our active associate Mr. Power, of Panama, has recently pre- 

 sented to the Society an important addition to the geography of 

 Central America, in a tracing of an original manuscript map of the 

 province of David, on the frontiers of New Granada and Costa 

 Eica, made from a new survey by Colonel Codazzi. This survey 

 has enabled an interesting portion of the Isthmus to be delineated 

 which was previously a blank on our maps. 



West Indies. — The Geography of Cuba has been published by 

 Don Esteban Pichardo, under the auspices of the Eoyal Junto of 

 Fomento. 



Among the Papers of this Session, I notice the I^andfall of Co- 

 lumbus, by Captain A. B. Becher, e.n. The first land in the New 

 World that was seen by the great Genoese adventurer is a point of 

 considerable historical interest. Hitherto, in this country, the sub- 

 ject has been treated in works of biography and history ; but it has 

 now been taken up by a really practical hydrographer, and the re- 

 cords of the Spanish archives compared step by step with the confi- 

 guration of accurate modem charts. In like manner, the spot where 

 Julius Caesar first planted his foot upon British ground was treated 

 of by the most eminent geographers of their day^ — D'Anville, 

 HpUey, Kennell, and others ; but it has been left for the enlight- 

 ened Astronomer Royal, from an investigation of certain phenomena 

 which modern science had brought to our knowledge, to prove, with 

 almost mathematical certainty, the precise spot in dispute ; * and 

 thus, by assiduous research and comparison, has our Assistant Hydro- 

 grapher arrived at conclusions by means of modern delineations 

 with respect to the Landfall of Columbus, which seem to be worthy 

 of equal attention. 



South America. — The progress of geographical research in South 

 America has been scarcely less active than in the northern and 

 central parts of the great Western continent. 



JVew Granada. — The course of the navigable river Atrato, which 

 falls into the Gulf of Darien, has been subjected (along with its west- 

 em affluents and the adjacent streams flowing to the Pacific) to the 

 investigations of several surveying expeditions, despatched by Mr. 

 F. M. Kelley, of New York, at his own expense. For more than fifty 

 years, Baron Humboldt had continued to direct attention to the 

 facilities, which the Atrato was reported to present, for establishing 



♦ See ' Archseologia,' vol. xxxiv. 



