^28 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES IN 1870. 



delta of the great river. One of the most re- 

 markable of these is the Tocantins. Its source 

 is in the mountains in the southern part of the 

 province of Goyaz, and it runs almost due north 

 till its union with the Araguaya, when it 

 turns eastward and winds through the swamps 

 and silty deposit of the delta of the Amazons, 

 and, indeed, forms a delta of its own, with 

 eight or ten channels through the ooze. These 

 channels are lined on either bank with Muriti 

 palms, mangroves, and a giant arum, which 

 gives them the appearance of being substantial 

 land covered with fruits, but they are really 

 only vast swamps where the mire is of great 

 depth. Above this miry delta is the region of 

 the India-rubber tree (Siplionia elastica), and 

 Prof. Hartt had the opportunity of observing 

 the method of prep ar ing' it for market. 



The French lawyer and adventurer Ton- 

 nens, who some years since ingratiated him- 

 self with the independent Indian tribes of 

 Southern Chili, and took the title of Aurelie 

 Antoine I., King of the Araucanians, is yet, 

 it seems, operating for mischief through these 

 tribes. He left Southern Chili for Europe 

 in 1867 or 1868, and, after spending some time 

 there, it is said in the study of military 

 science and in procuring arms and ammuni- 

 tion, returned to Auroco, the principal town 

 of the Araucanians, at the close of 1869, and 

 soon after sent a note to General Pinto, Presi- 

 dent of Chili, informing him of the installa- 

 tion of his government, its officers, his army, 

 etc., and declaring that he would suffer no 

 more Chilian aggression. He also notified 

 General Pinto of his intention to found two 

 new ports on the coast, and invited him to 

 send him a peace commission. General Pinto 

 refused to notice Tonnens's communication, 

 but wrote to the Indian caciques, allow- 

 ing them a certain time within which to lay 

 down their arms. The chiefs declined politely, 

 and asserted their faith and confidence in their 

 new king, and their determination to make war 

 upon Chili. Somewhat unwisely, General Pinto 

 replied, denouncing Tonnens as an outcast and 

 a lunatic. Thus the matter rested in the au- 

 tumn of 1870. 



V. EUROPE. The studies of the topography, 

 climate, and population of Alsace and Lor- 

 raine, made with reference to their probable 

 absorption by Germany, have had some inter- 

 est for geographers ; but, though making us 

 somewhat better acquainted with a region part 

 .of which has not been much visited by travel- 

 lers of late years, they hardly merit the title 

 of geographical discoveries. A more important 

 enterprise, and one in which long and patient 

 labor has at last been crowned with success in 

 the union of two great nations by railway com- 

 munication, is the completion of the Mont 

 Cenis Tunnel through the Alps, thus connect- 

 ing Italy and France. The tunnel is seven and 

 four-fifth miles in length, bored through the 

 solid rock, granite, quartz, slate, etc., and the 

 work has been prosecuted for thirteen years 



without cessation. It is twenty-five feet both 

 in vertical and horizontal diameter, and at 

 some points the mountain-surface is more than 

 a mile above it. The cost is said to have been 

 about $34,000,000. 



Prof. Ansted has made, during the year 1870, 

 a very careful and interesting study of the 

 basin of the Po, and the rivers which, entering 

 its delta, have contributed to form those exten- 

 sive lagoons of which the site of Venice is the 

 best known example. He finds in this forma- 

 tion the torrential rivers descendingthe south- 

 ern and steeper slope of a great mountain-' 

 range, and forming wide and marshy lagoons, 

 while the northern and more gently descending 

 slope gives rise to great rivers which discharge 

 their waters without extensive deltas the ex- 

 pression of a law of physical geography of uni- 

 versal application. He also demonstrates that 

 the peculiar growth, civilization, and artistic 

 culture of Venice, were natural and inevitable 

 outgrowths of its geographical position and 

 condition. 



The recent abrogation of some of the pro- 

 visions of the Treaty of Paris, relative to Rus- 

 sian occupation of 'the Black Sea, has led to an 

 investigation of the nationalities of Turkey, 

 with reference to the possibility of .realizing 

 the dreams of the Greeks, of a Pan-Hellenic 

 empire. On the authority of Gohlert, a recent 

 German geographer, it is stated that there are 

 in European Turkey, of Greeks and Albanians 

 (both originally of 'the same stock), 2,700,000 

 souls ; in Greece, 1,330,000 souls ; in the Gre- 

 cian Archipelago, 2,500,000 ; and on the shores 

 of Asia Minor, 2,000,000 men, making in all 

 8,530,000 Greeks, while European Turkey has 

 only 700,000 Turks, the remainder of the pop- 

 ulation being Wallachians, Bulgarians, Bos- 

 nians, Croats, Servians, etc. A Greek empire 

 might be formed of crescent shape along the 

 two shores of the ^Egean, including the islands 

 of the archipelago between its horns, which 

 would contain a population of about 13,000,000, 

 of whom two-thirds would be Greeks. 



VI. ASIA. From European to Asiatic Tur- 

 key is only a brief journey, but one which 

 leads to much that is interesting to the geog- 

 rapher; for portions of this vast region have 

 been undergoing careful explorations during 

 the year 1870. "We have already alluded to 

 the report of the Palestine Exploration Fund 

 Expedition, in the volume entitled " The Re- 

 covery of Jerusalem." Besides ' their very 

 carefully conducted excavations in and around 

 Jerusalem, they gave considerable time and 

 labor to the investigation of geographical and 

 archaeological questions in other portions of 

 Palestine. To some of these allusion has been 

 made in the volume of the ANNUAL CYCLO- 

 PAEDIA for 1869. In regard to one of them, 

 the " Moabite Stone, 1 ' their report is very full 

 and interesting. The impressions taken from 

 the stone while it was yet perfect (it has been 

 broken in pieces by the Arabs since that time) 

 have been translated, and, although there are 



