Jan. 12, 1857.] PKOPOSED EXPLORATION OF THE ORINOCO. 251 



right in proposing that Captain Hartstene, of the United States 

 Navy, should bo an Honorary member. 



The papers read were — 



1. Proposed Exploration of the River Orinoco, cj-c. By Eear- Admiral 

 Sir Charles Elliot, late Governor of Trinidad. 



Communicated by Sir Roderick I. Mubchison. 



An officer administering the government of a British colony, situated 

 within a few hours' steaming of the mouth of the Orinoco, would 

 naturally recur with interest to Humboldt's account of his explora- 

 tions in that liver, of its intersection with the majestic Amazon, by the 

 confluence of the waters of the Cassiaquare and the Rio Negro, a great 

 affluent of the Amazon, and of the still shorter means of connecting 

 these two stupendous river systems, comprising, accoiding to that 

 great authority, a surface of 190,000 square leagues, by the easy 

 opening of a canal of 7 or 8 miles long, at the Isthmus of Tuamini, 

 situated between the headwaters of the river of that name, falling 

 into the Orinoco, and the Eio Negro into the Amazon. In that 

 voyage of 75 days and 1500 miles, in a pirogue of scarcely three feet 

 breadth, which had its commencement at San Fernando on the 

 Apure, and closed at Angostura on the lower Orinoco, Humboldt 

 and Bonpland collected not merely a body of scientific observations, 

 which in point of amount, variety, and value, have never been ex- 

 ceeded by any travellers, but Humboldt enriched the narration 

 with reflections and indications of unsurpassable practical im- 

 portance. 



No investigations could be more worthy of the reputation of this 

 great country, or more conducive to its vast commercial interests, 

 than those to which Humboldt has called attention in that part of 

 his narrative, in which he describes his voyage, setting out at San 

 Fernando on the Apure, to its confluence with the Orinoco ; up that 

 stream, from that point, as high as San Fernando de Atabapo, across 

 the short portage from the Tuamini to the Rio Negro, occupying 

 four days-journeying in the forest ; down that noble affluent of the 

 Amazon to the Brazilian frontier at St. Carlos ; thence retracing their 

 course to San Fernando de Atabapo by the way of the Cassiaquare 

 and Orinoco, thus establishing the connection of these two great 

 river basins : — 



" Depuis que j'ai quitte les bords de I'Orinoque et de I'Amazon," says 

 Humboldt, writing in 1812 or 1813, " une nouvelle ere se prepare pour I'etat 

 social dcs peuples de I'Occideut. Au fureur de dissensions civiles succe'deront 

 les bienfaits de la paix, nn d^veloppcment plus libre des arts industriels. 

 Cette bifurcation de I'Orinoque, cette isthme de Tuamini si facile a franchir 



Y 2 



