488 



GEOGEAPHIOAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. 



them practise a rude agriculture, while others 

 are predatory and warlike in character. They 

 resemble in many respects the Indian tribes 

 of the Rocky Mountain regions. 



Japan, so long impenetrable to "Western na- 

 tions, is becoming gradually the best known of 

 any of the countries of Eastern Asia. The 

 conquests and treaties of Russia are reducing 

 the extent of its territory, the great island of 

 Saghalien, the Kurile Islands, several of the im- 

 portant ports of Yesso, and the double island 

 of Tsus-sima, the key of the Yellow Sea, hav- 

 ing passed into the possession of that power 

 within the past two years. Among those who 

 have given much and important information 

 relative to the climate, productions, manufac- 

 tures, people, and political history of Japan, 

 within the past few years, we may name Dr. 

 D. J. Macgowan, an American medical mission- 

 ary, who had unusual opportunities for obtain- 

 ing information on these points, and who, since 

 his return to the United States, has delivered 

 courses of lectures on Japan ; the Hon. Towns- 

 end Harris, late United States Minister to that 

 country ; Sir Rutherford Alcock's account of 

 his residence in the island of Niphon, and his 

 ascent of the volcano of Fusi-yama ; Mr. Pem- 

 berton Hodgson, the English consul's narrative 

 of his residence at Nagasaki and Hakodadi ; 

 M. Leon de Rosny's memoir upon Japan civili- 

 zation ; Messrs. Fr. Steyn and Hermann Wag- 

 ner's Nippon- Fahrer ("Japanese Voyager"), 

 with 140 plates and a map ; and Dr. Peter- 

 mann's account of the newly discovered atlas 

 of Japan, published by native geographers, and 

 containing 74 maps, and a general chart of the 

 empire, on the scale of 1 to 800,000. 



The Nicobar Islands, to the southwest of the 

 coast of Siam, of which little save the names 

 has hitherto been known, were explored by 

 the Austrian exploring expedition in the No- 

 vara, and M. Brulle has given an interesting 

 account of them in the Annales des voyages, 

 The Andaman Islands, lying north of these, 

 have been used since 1859 by the British Gov- 

 ernment as a penal colony for the revolted 

 sepoys. 



The enterprising English engineers Thuil- 

 lier and Montgomerie, whose explorations in 

 the Himalaya range we recorded in the "An- 

 nual Cyclopaadia" of last year, have continued 

 their labors in Cashmere and Ladak, and have 

 discovered within 16 miles of the lofty peak 

 K. 2 in the Karakorum range, a group of 

 mountains, all of them exceeding 26,000 feet in 

 height. Dr. Hooker, the English botanist, who 

 accompanied them, has made public his ob- 

 servations on the botany of Sikkim. 



The historical geography of Hindostan has 

 been the subject of some important and inter- 

 esting investigations during the year. M. Vi- 

 vien de St. Martin has published an able essay 

 on the India of Ptolemy; M. Reinaud, in an 

 essay on Mesene and Kharacene, has settled 

 the question of the situation of the ancient 

 cities of Bahmanabad and Minnagara, which 



till now had remained undecided, and has de- 

 termined the epoch of the author of an ancient 

 treatise on the Ruddy Sea (the Indian Ocean}, 

 which he assigns to the 3d century. 



Capt. Cameron has communicated to the 

 "Royal Geographical Society" of London an 

 elaborate account of the ancient history, eth- 

 nology, and physical geography of the Trans- 

 caucasus. 



The expedition of Mr. O'Hara Burke to ex- 

 plore the interior of Australia and cross that 

 island continent, whose failure was chronicled 

 in the "Annual Cyclopaedia" for 1861, turns 

 out to have been one of the most tragical and 

 distressing of the many unfortunate enterprises 

 for geographical exploration. Burke had un- 

 wisely divided his force into three or four com- 

 panies ; of these, Messrs. Purnell, Wright, and 

 Ludwig Becker, with several men, were left at 

 Menindie, and Mr. Brahe, with others, at a 

 point near Cooper river, while Burke himself, 

 accompanied by Wills, King, and Gray, with 6 

 camels, a horse, and three months' provisions, 

 pressed on toward the Sturt-Eyre river at the 

 north. On the 21st of April, Burke not hav- 

 ing arrived at Cooper river, Brahe with his 

 men abandoned that post only nine hours be- 

 fore Burke reached it, and left a writing behind, 

 saying that he was in fine health and his ani- 

 mals in good condition. The company left at 

 Menindie had suffered terribly from scurvy, 

 Becker and Purnell with most of the men hav- 

 ing died. Burke had at first made rapid prog- 

 ress, but soon came upon a waterless region 

 where his camels perished and the provisions 

 rapidly diminished. Gray soon died from ex- 

 haustion, and Burke and King, finding starva- 

 tion impending, started in search of food, while 

 Wills, exhausted, made his way to Cooper's 

 Creek, a branch of Cooper river not far dis- 

 tant, where he died soon after. Three days 

 later, Burke, worn out with fatigue and starva- 

 tion, died, and King alone remained. Reach- 

 ing Cooper's Creek in a condition of great ex- 

 haustion, he found the dead body of Wills, and 

 wandering in the vicinity in a half delirious 

 state, he fell into the hands of the natives, who 

 treated him kindly, and, when he was recover- 

 ed, gave him his liberty, and on the 25th of 

 May he reached Melbourne. 



The most enterprising and successful of Aus- 

 tralian explorers, Macdonald Stuart, has, after 

 a third attempt, succeeded in crossing the Aus- 

 tralian continent from south to north. After 

 a journey of eight months he arrived in safety 

 at the port of Victoria, the most northern 

 point of the continent. 



Mr. Kinlay, sent out by the South Austra- 

 lian Government to search for Capt. Burke 

 while his fate was yet unknown, made some 

 interesting discoveries. Traversing a country 

 more fertile than most of the interior districts 

 of the Australian basin, he came upon a lake 

 hitherto unknown, near which were several 

 tumuli containing the bones of Europeans who 

 had evidently been massacred by the natives. 



