356 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1882. 



he embarked on a raft on the Guyabero, and with great difiQculty and 

 danger made the descent to Bolivar by way of the Orinoco, losing the 

 raft in the rapids and having one of their men killed by the poisoned 

 arrows of the Indians, Dnring their journey 2,550 miles were traversed, 

 of which 1,275 were through new country. In the latter part of 1881 

 Dr. Crevaux left France, intending, under the direction of the French 

 ministry of public instruction, to pass, by one of the branches of the 

 Paraguay, to the Amazon water shed, but on arrival at Buenos Ayres 

 he was induced to undertake the exploration of the Pilcomayo, about 

 which little was known. After discovering some important Indian ruins 

 at or near Salta, he had prepared to embark his expedition in canoes on 

 the headwaters of the Pilcomayo, not far from Tupiza, in Bolivia, when 

 he was massacred, in April, 1882, with his party by the Tobas Indians. 



An exploration of the upper part of the river Cuyun6 has been made 

 by Mr. McTurk, an oflicial of British Guiana, who penetrated about 40 

 miles farther mto unknown Venezuelan territory than has been done by 

 any other white man, and found numerous Carib settlements. 



Mr. Edward Whymper, F. R. G. S., made, in 1880, a most adventur- 

 ous journey among the Andes of Ecuador, from which much information 

 of value may be derived. Mr. Whymper fairly tested aneroid barome- 

 ters for determining mountain heights, and concludes that generally 

 speaking they are untrustworthy. He also compared systematically 

 the results of elevation measurements made by boiling water and those 

 by mercurial barometers, and finds that in all cases the boiling-point 

 observations yielded lower altitudes than the barometers. Mr. Whym- 

 per also states that, contrary to the showing of most of the maps of that 

 at region, the Cordilleras do not lie in two parallel ranges. 



The elevations of a large number of mountains were measured, the 

 results generally agreeing with those of Drs. Reiss and Stubel, but 

 Mount Saraurcu, reputed to be a volcano, was found to be non-volcanic 

 and only 15,500 feet high, 1,900 feet lower than stated by Villavicencia. 



During a residence of several years in Magdalena, United States of 

 Colombia, Mr. F. A. Simons made extensive and numerous journeys 

 through the region of the Sierra Nevada. He has described the river 

 system at length in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, and 

 has made many measurments of mountain heights. The greatest height 

 he was able to determine was 17,500 feet, ascertained from the boiling 

 point of water. 



A new boundary line has been agreed upon between the Chilian and 

 Buenos Aj-rean possessions in Patagonia, which finally settles, it is to 

 be hoped, this long disputed subject. The Andes, stretching south to 

 Mounts Sarmiento and Darwin, will be the dividing line, while the 

 southern limit of the Argentine Republic will be formed by a line from 

 Cape Virgin to a point on the Andes, in latitude 52° south, longitude 

 72° west from Greenwich. The coasts of the Straits of Magellan are 



