380 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES IN 1865. 



nons, obsidian headed lances, housekeeping 

 utensils, etc., etc. Vocabularies of the Ca- 

 manche and Turascan languages were contrib- 

 uted by members of the Society, and several 

 volumes in the mystic language of the ancient 

 Mexicans, as well as a grammar of the Chacona 

 language. Preparation was also made for the 

 publication of a physical map of Mexico, indi- 

 cating its climates, productions, etc. 



In Central America the principal geographi- 

 cal interest has been concentrated on the moat 

 desirable route for an interoceanic canal across 

 the isthmus of Darien, or at some other point 

 across the Andes of Central America. In former 

 volumes of the ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA we have 

 enumerated many of these proposed routes, but 

 others still are suggested. Mr. Laurence Oli- 

 phant read a paper, before the Royal Geographi- 

 cal Society of London, on a new route, by way 

 of the river Chepo or Bayanos on the Pacific 

 side, and the Mandinga on the Atlantic side. 

 The Chepo discharges its waters into the Pacific 

 about thirty miles east of Panama, and is navi- 

 gable for large ships to Teruble, from which 

 point to tide-water on the Mandinga is only 

 fifteen miles. The elevation of the Andes in 

 this distance will, however, be a serious objec- 

 tion to the construction of a canal. Gen. Mos- 

 quera, the Columbian minister at the court of St. 

 James, gave some' account to the Society of an 

 exploration of a route through the valley of the 

 Cauca. Mr. Evan Hopkins advocated the route 

 of the Panama Railroad, as the elevation of the 

 Andes at that point did not exceed 250 feet. 

 Mr. Gerstenberg, another explorer, objected to 

 all these proposed routes that they had no 

 good or well-sheltered harbors at either ex- 

 tremity which would permit the passage of ships 

 in all weathers into the canal. The route from 

 San Miguel to the Bay of Caledonia was the 

 only one which fulfilled this condition. There 

 was. however, one difficulty in making a canal 

 by this route. The distance from tide-water 

 to tide- water was thirty-five miles, and the ele- 

 vation to be overcome by locks 930 feet, and 

 this very considerable elevation was mostly 

 within a space of three miles, and at a point 

 where it would be difficult to furnish sufficient 

 water for the canal. The numerous projects for 

 an interoceanic canal and the various points 

 proposed for its termini indicate, as Sir Roderick 

 I. Murchison well remarked, that a geographi- 

 cal knowledge of the American Isthmus is still 

 one of the numerous desiderata of geography. 



In New Granada, a State belonging almost 

 equally to Central and South America, Mr. 

 Robert Cross, a commissioner sent by the Eng- 

 lish Secretary of State for India to collect seeds 

 of the Cinchona, or Quinquina Pitayo, for the 

 cinchona plantations in India, reported to the 

 Geographical Society, at its April meeting, that 

 he had followed the course of the Andes Cor- 

 dilleras in his route from Quito through Ibarra, 

 Pasto, and Popayan. The wooded valley of 

 Sylvia is the centre of a district abounding in 

 cinchona. Seven days' journey south of Sylvia 



he found a volcano not heretofore described, 

 but which in common with a village near it bore 

 the Indian name of Purace. During his jour- 

 ney he made the ascent of the peak of Pinon 

 from Pitayo, and by means of boiling water as- 

 certained that its height was about 8,000 feet. 

 The Indians of Pitayo speak the Paez dialect, 

 which differs greatly from the Quichua,, the 

 language of the Indians of Ecuador, Peru, and 

 Bolivia, and has no affinities with the Guambi- 

 ana, the dialect of the neighboring Indians of 

 Sylvia, Totero, Paniquita, and Purace. In cross- 

 ing the glacial plateau of Guanacas, in order to 

 descend from the forests of Pitayo into the val- 

 ley of the Magdalena, Mr. Cross and his mule 

 came near perishing from the intense cold. 

 Along the road at short distances were found 

 numerous skeletons of men and animals who 

 had thus perished. 



Dr. Karl von Seebach, a distinguished Ger- 

 man geographer, in the autumn of 1864, visited 

 Costa Rica, with the purpose of exploring its 

 volcanoes, Avhich are very numerous and active. 

 In the months of December and January he 

 made a survey of the volcanoes Rincon de la 

 Vieja and Cuipilapa Miravalles, and the moun- 

 tain peaks Tenorio and Pelado, as well as a very 

 considerable number of lower summits, some of 

 them volcanic. These had, however, all been 

 previously described, and his investigations only 

 confirmed the substantial accuracy of previous 

 surveys. On his return to Nicaragua in the 

 latter part of January, he received information 

 of another volcano in Costa Rica, which, though 

 superior in height, and more remarkable in 

 character than any of the other volcanoes in the 

 State, was as yet unknown except by name to 

 European explorers. Early in March he set 

 out to survey it, and explored it with great 

 thoroughness. It is called Turrialba, and is in 

 the northern part of the State, west of the bet- 

 ter-known volcano of Cartago or Irazu. The 

 active crater, which is 9,342 feet above the sea 

 level, is the lowermost of four summits which 

 join one another, the eruption having appar- 

 ently torn away a portion of its original eleva- 

 tion. The next summit has several points which 

 emit smoke, but no active crater ; and the further 

 and loftier summits, though not now indicating 

 any recent volcanic action, have crater basins 

 and lava deposits, indicating their former activ- 

 ity. Seen from Irazu, the higher and now inac- 

 tive summits have the appearance of overhang- 

 ing the crater, and of being to some extent 

 undermined by it. 



SOUTH AMERICA proper is the favorite field 

 for geographical explorers ; its lofty mountains, 

 its mighty rivers, its vast forests and savannas, 

 as yet but imperfectly known, its novel and 

 abundant fauna and flora, and its precious 

 metals and gems, render it one of the most at- 

 tractive of regions for the scientific adventurer. 



Brazil has long been the object of geograph- 

 ical study; but so vast is its territory, that as 

 yet but a small portion has been thoroughly ex- 

 plored. Dr. Bousquet, a physician and natu- 



