334 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



would not unite to see the American flag first planted at the North 

 Poll'. Fijfh, as to the advantages of the Smitii's Sound route over 

 all otlier routes, tor discovery in the unexplored pints of the Arc- 

 tic regions, they are but the simple enumerations which I have 

 before made to the Society: 1. Land as a base of operations; 2. 

 The opportunity to colonize a party of hunters and natives as the 

 means to a permanent support." 



Capt. Sihis Bent, late of the U. S. Navy, who rendered impor- 

 tant hydrographical services in the Perry expedition to Japan, and 

 who was also attached to the "Preble," under Capt. Glynn, in an 

 earlier visit to Jai)an, has also publisiunl his views on the sub- 

 ject of the best mode of reaching the North Pole. Capt. Bi'nt, 

 ■while on the coast of Eastern Asia, made important observations 

 on the Kuro-Siroo, or Japanese Gulf Stream, which presents 

 some very interesting analogies to the American Gulf Stream, 

 These observations are contained- in the second volume of the 

 Report of the Perry Expedition. In his opinion, every attempt to 

 reach the North Pole should be made by following the continua- 

 tion of one or the other of these Gulf Streams, that is, through 

 Behring's Straits, or by the Spitzbergcn route, which he terms 

 the " Thermometric Gateways to the Pole." He is, therefore, de- 

 cidedly opposed to the project of Dr. Hayes for an expedition 

 through Smith's Sound. His views, though formed independently 

 and upon his own observations and studies, coincide in many re- 

 spects with those which are held by the continental geographers 

 in Europe. — American Jouriial of Science and Arts, May, 18G9. 



SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 



Mr. Porter C. Bliss read, at the meeting of the American Asso- 

 ciation, at Salem, a paper upon a '* New Classification of the South 

 American Indians, upon the basis of Piiilology." Mr. Bliss gave, 

 as one of the results of several years of travel and investigation 

 among the aborigines of the Argentine Ili>public, Bolivia, Para- 

 guay, Brazil, etc., the discovery that the number of stock lan- 

 guao^es within those rei^ions has been exagirorated tenfold, and 

 that there are, instead of 150 or more, as has been loosely stated 

 by the Jesuits and otiier later writers, but 12 or 13 stock lan- 

 guages in the southern half of South America. Of all these he 

 had collected vocal)ularies, having visited most of them as com- 

 missioner on the part of the Argi'Utine government, but had lost 

 them by X\u\\v seizure, last year, by Lopez, of Paraguay. 



Mr. Bliss proceeded to point out, on a large map of South Amer- 

 ica, the localities of each of the tribes mentioned, beginning with 

 the Fuegians, and passing to the two races of Patngonians, the 

 Araueanians, of Chih;, whom he identified with the Pehuenches, 

 Iluilliches, and Aucas, of the Pampas of Buenos Ayres, tiie Abi- 

 pones, T()l)a>^, Mocobis, Ocoles, Mataguayos, and ^Machieuys, of 

 the Ciran Chaco, or region between Paraguay and Bolivia. 



He then ih'seribed the Guaranis and Payaguas, of Paraguay, the 

 Atacamas, Quichuas, Aymara?, Chiriguanos, and Chiquiiians, of 



