GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES. 



397 



The scientific commission appointed by the 

 Brazilian Government to explore the interest- 

 ing mining region of Matto Grosso, and to re- 

 port upon the best modes of access to it, have 

 returned and sent in their report, which has 

 not yet been published. It is understood, how- 

 ever, that they found it accessible through the 

 Juiuheima, an affluent of the Parana, and its 

 tributary, the Brilhante, both navigable streams. 

 The Government of Brazil, though now attempt- 

 ing to act with more liberality and a wiser policy 

 than formerly, has hitherto pursued an extreme- 

 ly narrow and impolitic course in relation to 

 the navigation of its great river, the Amazons, 

 prohibiting in effect any maritime power from 

 ascending it except in Brazilian vessels. There 

 is reason to believe that the monopolies and 

 restrictions hitherto maintained, and which 

 have proved so injurious to its own prosperity, 

 will ere long be removed. 



A Brazilian engineer, Sefior da Silva Cou- 

 tinho, has, during the year, explored the Purus, 

 one of the larger affluents of the Amazons, and 

 ascertained that it does not, as had been re- 

 ported, communicate with the Madeira River. 

 Mr. Nathaniel Plant, an .English traveller, who 

 has been exploring the Province of Rio Grande 

 do Sul, has discovered the existence of exten- 

 sive beds of excellent coal in the basin of the 

 Jaguara6, and its two affluents, the Candista 

 and the Tigre, navigable streams which dis- 

 charge their waters into a lake near the Atlan- 

 tic coast. 



The Argentine Confederation has been for 

 the past few years a favorite region of study 

 with European and American geographers. 

 No one has been more patient and indefatiga- 

 ble in his researches than the French geogra- 

 pher, Dr. Martin de Moussy, who has spent 

 twenty-two years in the exploration of this 

 country, and who during the past year has 

 given to the public the results of his patient 

 investigations in a work of three 8vo volumes, 

 (accompanied by an atlas) entitled Description 

 geographique et statist ique de la Confederation 

 Argentine, a work of great merit and interest, 

 which fairly exhausts the subject of the physi- 

 cal geography, minerals, vegetable and annual 

 productions, population, resources, government, 

 and history of the Confederation in general, 

 and of each of its provinces. The climate he 

 regards as eminently salubrious, and the soil is 

 rich and fertile. The pampas or prairies are, for 

 the most part, productive of rich and nutritious 

 grasses, though the clay lands are often cov- 

 ered with the mimosa and different species of 

 cactus. The lack of forests in extensive districts 

 he attributes rather to the dryness of the air, the 

 constancy of the wind in a single direction, and 

 the want of rain, than to any deficiency in the 

 soil. "Wherever trees are planted in any con- 

 siderable numbers on the pampas they grow 

 and flourish. The population of the confedera- 

 tion is largely European. Nearly 150,000 Ital- 

 ians have emigrated thither within the past 

 twenty-five years, and they still continue to 



come in large numbers. There are also consid- 

 erable German colonies. In a memoir read be- 

 fore the French Societe de Geographic, in June, 

 18J4, M. de Moussy gave some account of a 

 journey he had made a few montns previous 

 to the Indian frontier of Buenos Ayres (now 

 again one of the States of the Confederation). 

 This frontier now extends from near Cape Cor- 

 rientes along the northern slope of the Vulcan 

 Mountains to the foot of the Andes. It has 

 only been within the past four or five years 

 that the Indians have yielded the territory 

 south of the Southern Salado River to the 

 whites. The amalgamation of the white and 

 red races, the awakened and developed intelli- 

 gence of the Indians, who are really a race 

 of high character and abilities, the desire for 

 the education of their children, and the more 

 winning manners of the Italians and Germans, 

 whom they do not regard so much their he- 

 reditary enemies as the Spaniards, have tend- 

 ed to influence these independent and brave 

 Araucanians, Querandis, and Guaranis, to 

 abandon their predatory life, and settling down 

 to the cultivation of the soil, to endeavor to 

 vie with the whites in the arts of peace. The 

 coming over of several of their chiefs to an 

 alliance with the whites has greatly aided in 

 this change. The Confederation has also planted 

 some colonies and small forts far within their 

 territory, as for instance at Bahia Blanca, Car- 

 men, St. Matthias Bay, and Fort Villarino. 



An enterprising Englishman. Mr. Wheel- 

 wright, has interested English capitalists in the 

 matter of opening the remote provinces of the 

 Confederation to a market, and by the as- 

 sistance of the Government of the Confeder- 

 ation, has already constructed a railroad from 

 Rosario to Cordova, and proposes to continue 

 it through Tucuman, Salta, Jujuy, and into 

 Bolivia, and also to extend a line westward 

 from the La Plata to Mendoza. to cross the 

 Andes there into Chile. In this connection 

 the various enterprises recently undertaken 

 to find a practicable route across the Andes, 

 assume a greater significance. It is supposed 

 that the pass south of Mendoza, about lat. 

 34 40' south, will be the most feasible for 

 railroad purposes. This pass, though having 

 an altitude of 6,000 feet above the sea-level, 

 is approached by a gradual slope, and in that 

 latitude is not liable to serious or permanent 

 obstruction by snow. It was known, though 

 until recently it had beeri forgotten, that dur- 

 ing the last century the Jesuit fathers suc- 

 ceeded in crossing the Andes at points still 

 further south, in lat. 39 41, and that the 

 passes by which they then crossed were much 

 lower and more practicable. Since that time, 

 however, the Indian tribes had jealously guarded 

 these passes against the intrusion of white 

 men, and it was not until 1863 that exploring 

 parties have been able to obtain access to most 

 of them. In 1856 an engineer and a German 

 physician from Chili, MM. Fonck and Herz, 

 made an attempt to cross by way of Lake 



