GEOGRAPHY. 473 



E. R. Heath, reference to which is made in last year's summary. To this 

 most valuable account is added a map of the journey, by Dr. Heath, 

 who was acting as medical officer of the party engaged in investigating 

 the capacities of the country under the direction of Mr. G. E. Church, 

 who has made a comprehensive report to the United States Department 

 of State on the general condtion of Ecuador, including a detailed de- 

 scription of its geography, with especial reference to its river systems 

 and its productive resources (Senate Ex. Doc. No. G9, Forty-seventh 

 Congress). Mr. Church states that no census has ever been accurately 

 taken, but he estimates the population at about one million, of which 

 one tenth are of the white race, three-tenths of mixed whites, Indians, 

 and negroes, and six-tenths pure-blooded Indians. A very graphic ac- 

 count is given of the topography and river systems. Mr. Church finds 

 very little hope for the development of the country, in spite of its fine 

 climate and great productiveness, on account of the indoleut and dis- 

 honest character of the people generally and the oppressive and anarch- 

 ical government. 



In the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society for May, 1883, Mr. 

 Robert Blake White gives an account of the physical features of those 

 portions of the central provinces of Colombia of which no detailed 

 account exists. Great interest has been manifested during the last few 

 years in those countries, which it is supposed would be benefited by the 

 completion of the Panama Canal, and their possible development. Of 

 these countries none would be more favorably affected than Colombia, 

 and the account of its topography and resources, accompanied as it is 

 by a map corrected from Mr. White's own surveys, is of great interest, 

 especially when it is remembered that the last European traveler in this 

 region whose works have been at all read was Alexauder von Humboldt, 

 who only passed through the country from southeast to northwest, leav- 

 ing on one side the large district described by Mr.White. 



Dr. Paul Giissfeldt has been, during the past year, making interesting 

 trigonometrical surveys in the Andes, and has attempted to ascend 

 Mount Aconcagua in the Chilian Cordillera (22,750 feet high), but failed, 

 owing to the intense cold. 



The published account of the journeys of Lieutenant Bove, of the 

 Italian navy, in and about Southern Patagouia, Tierra del Fuego, and 

 the Falkland Islands, does not materially add to our knowledge of the 

 physical features of those regions. 



Lieutenant Bove now proposes a new expedition in order to iavesti- 

 gate the present physical and economic condition of the Argentine 

 Republic, with a view to establishing closer commercial relations be- 

 tween that country and Italy. 



Under the command of Lieut. Commander C. II. Davis,U. S. 28"., a party 

 of United States naval officers have been engaged in determining tele- 

 graphically differences of longitude on the west coast of South America. 

 The cables recently laid between Panama and Valparaiso were utilized 



