GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES. 



395 



were read before the Roya Geographical So- 

 ciety in 1804. that on Vancouver's Island being 

 prepared by Dr. C. Forbes, Surgeon of the He- 

 cate, H. M. Surveying ship, and that on British 

 Columbia by Lieut. H. S. Palmer, R. E., who 

 had been engaged in the survey. Dr. Forbes 

 represents the climate of Vancouver as much 

 like that of Great Britain, though rendered 

 somewhat colder by the cold winds from the 

 snow-clad hills of the Olympus range on the 

 main land. The whole surface is reckoned at 

 12.000,000 acres, of which, however, only about 

 1,000,000 are suitable for culture or grazing. 

 Coal is found in very considerable quantities, 

 and of good quality. The timber is excellent, 

 and the trees of immense size. There are sev- 

 eral excellent land-locked harbors, the best 

 being Esquimalt Bay, Nanaimo, and one in 

 Tooke district abutting on San Juan de Fuca 

 Straits. The harbor of Victoria, the present 

 capital of the colony, is not so good, lacking 

 depth, and having an unsafe anchorage. Nana- 

 imo Dr. Forbes considered as destined to 

 be the great centre of business. Lieut. Palmer, 

 in his paper on British Columbia, described, 

 with great clearness and beauty, the course of 

 the Fraser River, the extensive mining region 

 of Cariboo, with its confused congeries of hills 

 of an altitude of 6,000 or 7,000 feet, thickly 

 timbered, whence subordinate ranges radiated, 

 and the gulches or streams descending from 

 each in all directions. Gold was found through- 

 out a district extending over 7 of latitude and 

 3 3 of longitude. The climate is disagreeable, 

 the winter being long and the cold intense, and 

 only two months in the year being bright and 

 pleasant. A tract about 100 miles in breadth 

 along the Fraser and its tributaries, is the only 

 portion of arable land, but this is very fertile. 



In the UNITED STATES the progress of the 

 war has led to the production of seme excellent 

 maps and topographical charts of the regions 

 traversed by the contending armies. The Cum- 

 berland range of mountains, and the spurs and 

 auxiliary chains of mountains connected with 

 it, have been more thoroughly explored than 

 ever before, and their peculiar formation and 

 characteristics carefully noted. These moun- 

 tains are rich in mineral wealth. Iron (the 

 hematitic ores), copper, gold, salt, and coal, are 

 found in large quantities, and when peace re- 

 turns they will doubtless prove attractive, from 

 their mineral deposits, to a large and enterpris- 

 ing population. The geological and geographical 

 survey of California has made progress during 

 the year, under the energetic labors of Professor 

 Whitney and his associates, and interesting dis- 

 coveries have been made relative to the height 

 of the peaks of the Snowy Range (the Sierra 

 Nevada). It has been ascertained, very unex- 

 pectedly, that there are several of these peaks, 

 some in California and others probably within 

 the- boundaries of Nevada, which exceed in 

 height Mount Shasta, hitherto supposed to be 

 the highest point in the United States. Of 

 these Mount Tyndal, about Ion. 118, lat. 36 30' 



to 37, is, according to the barometrical meas- 

 urements of Messrs. King and Brewer, 15,090 

 feet high, Mount Shasta being 14,440. Mount 

 Whitney, in the same vicinity, is over 15,000 

 feet, and perhaps a few feet higher than Mount 

 Tyndall. The White Mountains, in the same 

 meridian, but fifty or sixty miles further north, 

 have one cone estimated at 14,600 feet. 



Turning to MEXICO, we find that the Franco- 

 Austrian occupation of that country has been 

 the means of inciting the publication of several 

 treatises and maps, giving very full accounts of 

 the topography, geography, soil, climate, and 

 mineral productions of that country. None 

 of these are narratives or charts of very re- 

 cent explorations, but they possess considera- 

 ble value from the thoroughness with which 

 the investigations were prosecuted, and the 

 minute and careful accuracy of the maps and 

 charts. One of the most admirable of these 

 works is a volume compiled by the Baron F. 

 W. Von Egloftstein, and published by y\- 

 D. Appleton & Company of New York, entitled 

 " Contributions to the Geology and Physical 

 Geography of Mexico, including a Geological 

 and Topographical Map, with profiles of some 

 of the principal Mining Districts, together with 

 a graphic description of an ascent of the vol- 

 cano Popocatepetl." The Topographical map 

 was compiled by Charles de Berghes, and the 

 Geological map and profiles by Frederick Von 

 Gerolr, at the suggestion of Alexander Von 

 Humboldt. The explanations were drawn up 

 by Von Gerolt, and the account of the ascent 

 of the volcano by him and his friend Baron L. 

 Gros, who accompanied him. Views of the 

 valley of Mexico from actual landscapes painted 

 by Rugendas, also embellish the volume. The 

 Geological and Topographical maps and pro- 

 files are inserted both plain and colored, accord- 

 ing to the geological formations. These ex- 

 plorations were made in 1833 and 1834. 



A series of interesting experiments made in 

 1863, by the late Raymond Thomassy, a Fellow 

 of the French Societe de Geographic, in regard 

 to the saltness of the Atlantic Ocean at different 

 points, and also a memoir containing observa- 

 tions on the structure and geological character 

 of the BAHAMA ISLANDS, were published in the 

 November (1864) Bulletin of that Society. M. 

 Thomassy ascertained, by careful exploration, 

 that those islands are undermined by the ocean, 

 and that the tides penetrate through the porous 

 rocks (an oolitic chalk) which underlie them 

 with every rise of the tide; and that at even a 

 distance of a mile or more from the shores the 

 wells rise and fall with the tide, and are either 

 salt or brackish if of any considerable depth. 

 M. Thomassy's observations on the saltness of 

 the ocean developed some remarkable facts. 

 The saline constituents, instead of being con 

 stant in quantity, varied materially in different 

 localities, and sometimes under circumstances 

 which gave little clue to the diversity. It was 

 of course to be expected that near the mouths 

 of large rivers, or in the vicinitr of harbors, the 



