466 SIR RODERICK I. MURCHISON'S ADDRESS. [May 25, 1857. 



of tlie illustrious Humboldt. I can only say that no exertion on my 

 part as tlie President of this Society shall be wanting, to support 

 any proposal which may be made to bring about such a simultaneous 

 and conjoint Geographical Survey made by the Governments of 

 Britain, France, and the United States, as shall definitively settle 

 the points at issue, and demonstrate whether or not it be practicable 

 to execute a great inter-oceanic canal. 



South America. 



I^ew Granada. — Captain Battersby, who has been lately travelling 

 in New Granada, strongly advocates the superior commercial 

 advantages of the Eiver Atrato over the Magdalena as a channel of 

 communication, not only with the people on the upper waters of 

 that stream, but with those of the extensive districts bordering the 

 Cuenca, and of the cities of Antioquia and of Cartajo, the population 

 of which alone he estimates at 30,000 ; expressing his belief that 

 ere long the traific on the Atrato must be carried on by steamers, 

 and that then the Gulf of Darien will become the centre of nearly 

 all the commerce of New Granada. 



It appears that, in the course of the last year, two steamers, 

 drawing 7 feet water, did ascend the river as high as Quibdo, the 

 capital of Choco. British goods destined for that place are now sent 

 round Cape Horn to the Bay of Buenaventura, and have to be 

 carried thence on mules across the Andes. 



CMk. — M. Plessis has completed his map of the province of 

 Santiago de Chile, coloured geologically, a copy of which has been 

 received by the Society, through the kindness of Mr. Bartholomew, 

 who has engraved it. 



Those who wish for the latest data on the geographical and other 

 statistics of that section of South America will find them in the An- 

 niiario Chileno, a yearly publication which contains much useful local 

 information, and in the Anales de la Universidad, another periodical, 

 principally edited by M. Domeyko, a well-known geologist and 

 good observer. 



Peru and Bolivia. — Mr. Bollaert, our associate, has drawn attention 

 to the existence of a statistical account of Peru^ published in Lima 

 by Don J. M. Cordova y Urrutia ; as well as to a similar work on 

 Bolivia by Don Jose Maria Dalence of Chuquisaca ; both of which, 

 if translated, he thinks might be useful to parties interested in 

 those countries. 



Rio de la Plata. — Lieut. Page's preliminary Eeport has been pub- 



