570 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1885. 



to send his steamer "Dijmphna" next summer on an expedition to the 

 east coast of Greenland under an officer of the Danish royal navy, to 

 explore and lay down the coast line between 66° 08' (the farthest north- 

 ward point attained by Lieutenant Holm's expedition) and 70°. 



SOUTH AMERICA. 



Professor Seelstrang, of the University of Cordoba, has been ap- 

 pointed by the Argentine Government to superintend the publication 

 of an atlas of the Republic, and a considerable sum has been appropri- 

 ated for the work. It is to consist of 27 parts, and 4 of these are already 

 in hand. 



The Dutch scientific expedition in March and April last, to examine 

 the upper course of the Surinam River, was quite successful. At Ber- 

 gendal they took the height of the neighboring Blue Mountain, which 

 they ascended and from which they had a view of the various mountain 

 chains of Surinam. 



M. Alcenar CEraripe read a paper on geographical neology and neog- 

 raphy before the Geographical Society of Rio de Janeiro, in which he 

 asks if there shall be a geographic neology for Brazil ; a correction of 

 orthography ; and if so, how these can be brought about. The questions 

 were referred to a commission, whose report has not yet been received. 



The Bolletino of the Italian Geographical Society for July prints two 

 unedited letters of early Italian adventurers in South America, recently 

 brought to light in the archives of Florence and Modena. The longer 

 and more important, dated December 24, 1534, is addressed from Valen- 

 zuela (Venezuela) by a certain Tomaso Fiaschi to his brother in Flor- 

 ence. 



Details of Mr. im Thurm's journey to Mount Roraima, British Guiana, 

 are given by Mr. H. I. Perkins, who accompanied Mr. im Thurm, in the 

 August number of the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, 

 and an illustrated article in Nature; April 30, 1885; vol. xxxi, pp. 

 607-10. • 



The Argentine expeditions into Patagonia have raised the agronomic 

 credit of that country, which has long been supposed arid and sterile. 

 The report of General YiUejas, and that of Colonel Roa, who has trav- 

 elled more than 500 leagues in Patagonia, affirm that the region near 

 the base of the mountains is rich, not only in metals and minerals, but 

 in fertile valleys which nestle between spurs of the range. With steam 

 transportation between the mountains and the coast, it is affirmed that 

 rapid growth of population might be expected and that prosperous com- 

 munities might be established. 



A party commanded by Feilberg, and sent out by the Argentine Gov- 

 ernment to exi^lore the Pilcomayo, found that a trade route via that 

 river to Bolivia is not feasible. Below the rapids, 60 leagues above the 

 mouth, the Pilcomayo receives an affluent not marked on any chart, 

 but with as much water as the Pilcomayo or perhaps more. 



