GEOGRAPHICAL ASD ARCHJEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. 



485 



his staff, by a large Chilian force, who had been 

 guided to his encampment by a treacherous 

 Indian, and, having been seized and disarmed 

 by the Chilians, was committed to the prison at 

 Xacimiento. where at the latest intelligence he 

 was still incarcerated. 



M. Guinnard, a French traveller, who passed 

 three years in captivity among the Poyuches, a 

 Pata^onian tribe, has given, in the Tour du 

 3I rlc. an interesting description of the geo- 

 graphy, productions, ethnology, &c., of Pata- 

 gonia, and a vivid narrative of his perils and 

 sufferings in making his escape to one of the 

 Chilian ports. The French have taken posses- 

 sion of the island of Tova on the E. coast of 

 Patagonia, which has extensive deposits of 

 gnano. 



On the western side of South America, M. 

 Paul de Marcoy, a French astronomer, has pub- 

 lished an interesting volume of travels in the 

 Peruvian Andes, and the indefatigable explorer 

 Von Tschudi is still pursuing his investigations 

 in the same region. 



In the West Indies. Messrs. F. Lavallee and 

 F. Pastrana have published in the bulletin of 

 the French Geographical Society, a historical 

 and geographical sketch of the island of Porto 

 Rico, with a fine map. M. Wall has made a 

 geological exploration of Trinity Island, and 

 Senor J. de Sivers has given to the world a 

 treatise on the geography of Cuba. A new 

 map of Hayti. much more complete than any 

 which have preceded it, was published at Paris 

 by the Haytien Government near the close of 

 1861. The Dominican Government was for- 

 mally annexed to Spain in 1861. 



Crossing the Atlantic, we find a few items 

 of geographical interest in Europe. The trig- 

 onometrical survey of Great Britain and Ireland, 

 begun in 1783, has during the past year been 

 completed, and its results have been published 

 in 7 quarto volumes. This survey lias been 

 connected by several triangulations with those 

 of France and Belgium, which in their turn 

 are connected with those of Holland. Denmark, 

 Germany, Prussia, and Russia, and will furnish 

 the means of measuring an arc of parallel of 

 75. A cadastral survey of Ireland. Scotland, 

 and England is also in progress, and a map of 

 Ireland in 205 sheets, on the scale of one inch 

 to a mile has been published, and those of - 

 land and Ireland, on the same scale, are in the 

 course of publication. 



Sir Henry James has commenced the publi- 

 cation of a series of maps of the whole world 

 on the scale of two inches to the mile, the in- 

 tention being to have the sheets uniform in 

 scale, so that any number of them could be 

 united to give the map of a country or a conti- 

 nent without the need of adaptation, which has 

 hitherto been a great difficulty with geograph- 

 ers. Six sheets have been issued, and an effort 

 is making to enlist the geographers of other 

 countries in the enterprise, so as to make the 

 maps the best possible representations of all 

 portions of the earth's surface. 



The topographical survey of Spain has been 

 prosecuted with great vigor during the past 

 year, and the central provinces have been ac- 

 curately mapped, and the entire triangulation 

 of the first order completed. 



M. Adrien Block has published a volume of 

 the statistics of the different states of Europe, 

 with an Atlas, a very complete and valuable 

 work. M. Rudolph has completed a very ela- 

 borate gazetteer, geographical, topographical, 

 and statistical, of all the towns in Germany. 

 Two valuable geographical works on Italy have 

 also been published during the year : Le Roy- 

 aume d'ltaUe, etudie sur les lieux memes, by P. de 

 Tchihatchev, and ISItalia meridionalf, o I'an- 

 tico Ream delle Due Sicilie, by J. de Luca. 

 Turkey in Europe has been very thoroughly 

 explored, especij|lly its northern and eastern 

 provinces, and Servia and Montenegro have 

 been fully described by Boue. by M. Henri 

 Thiers, and by Messrs. Lestak and Scherb, and 

 Eastern Bulgaria by Dr. Allard. 



In Asia, Syria, Palestine, Damascus, and the 

 Haiiran have been very thoroughly explored 

 during the past three or four years. The works 

 of Graham, Porter, and others had already made 

 ns familiar with the two latter, and no oViental 

 tour was complete without a visit to the former ; 

 but during the French occupation of Syria sev- 

 eral commissions were sent out by the French 

 Government to explore the ancient ruins and 

 relics of Phenician, Philistine, Edomite, Mace- 

 donian, and Roman rule in these regions, and 

 their investigations have brought to light much 

 that is interesting. The report of the Pheni- 

 cian commission was drawn up by M. Ernest 

 Renan. one of the most eminent of French 

 oriental scholars, and brought to light many 

 new facts in regard to the archaeology and an- 

 cient geography of Sidon, Tyre, and other cities 

 of ancient Phenicia. M. Poulain de Bossay, 

 who has also explored the ancient site of Tyre 

 within the last two years, has published an 

 essay on the topography of Tyre, in which he 

 controverts some of M. Renan's positions. 



M. G. de Perrot, who was intrusted with the 

 direction of the commission for exploring the 

 archaeology of Asia Minor, discovered in the 

 ancient Galatia many remarkable antiquities ; 

 among others, at Ancyra, the remarkable epi- 

 graphic monument known as the " "Will of Au- 

 gustus ;" but though it has been asserted and 

 generally admitted that the Galatians were a 

 Celtic race and the original stock from which 

 the Galli or Gauls of France sprung, the ex- 

 plorers could find no trace of Celtic or Druidic 

 monuments in that mountainous region. Sev- 

 eral of the French officers of the army of oc- 

 cupation explored very thoroughly the region 

 of the Libanus, or Lebanon range of mountains ; 

 and M^f. Emmerich de Rey and Aucapitaine 

 penetrated into the Hauran r the ancient seat of 

 the great races of Canaan, and have published 

 interesting monographs in reference to that 

 hitherto little known region. M. Pierrotti, 

 who has devoted many years to the investiga- 



