398 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES. 



Llanquihue, Lake Todos los Santos, and Lake 

 Naguelhuapi. They were successful, though 

 encountering great difficulties, and passing over 

 the mountain at an elevation of about 4,800 

 feet. On their return they found that by as- 

 cending the Rio Frio (a stream originating 

 from the glacier of El Tronador, and feeding 

 Lake Naguelhuapi) for a distance of nine 

 miles, they could pass through the valley of 

 Perez Resales, and thus effect a passage at an 

 elevation of not more than 2,730 feet. 



A young Chilian, Don Guillermo Cox, de- 

 termined to find a still more feasible route, but 

 crossing first by the pass which Messrs. Fonck 

 and Herz had discovered, descended the Rio 

 Negro, a river 700 miles in length, discharging 

 into the Atlantic, and having its source in Lake 

 Naguelhuapi. The stream, though having con- 

 siderable descent and some rapids, was naviga- 

 ble from the lake ; but at a distance of about 

 eighty-five miles from the lake his frail boat 

 was shipwrecked by striking a rock, and he and 

 his companion escaped only to be made prison- 

 ers by the Indians, who, however, were speedily 

 pacified by his playing upon a flageolet, and suf- 

 fered him to go back to Valdivia to obtain some 

 presents to redeem himself and his friend. He 

 availed himself of the opportunity to explore 

 other routes, and to learn from his Indian com- 

 panions particulars in regard to them. The 

 most practicable he believed to be that of Bar- 

 eloche, in about lat. 41, passing south of El 

 Tronador, but terminating in Lake Naguelhuapi. 

 It is about seventy-five miles in length from 

 the mouth of the Petrohue, where it com- 

 mences, to the lake, but it is so easy that the 

 Indians pass it daily with their beasts of bur- 

 den. Its altitude is believed not to exceed 

 2,500 feet. He also obtained full information 

 of three other passes. One from Lake Ranco, 

 through the valley of Sifen, which eventually 

 reaches through a considerable forest one of 

 the affluents of the Rio Negro. This is a little 

 below the line of 40 south latitude ; another, 

 the pass of Villa Rica, about lat. 39 south, 

 follows the Tolten, a Chilean river, up to 

 its source in Lake Villa Rica, thence passing 

 through the narrow valley of Villa Rica, passes 

 down the valley of the Huechum, a tributary 

 of the Encarnacion, one of the affluents of the 

 Rio Negro. This pass, a convenient one and 

 not of great altitude, is carefully guarded 

 by the Indians, and no white man has been 

 allowed to pass through it during this cen- 

 tury. The third pass, that of Rinihue, is 

 very remarkable, and has been explored also 

 by Mr. William Frick, a German engineer, 

 but is too narrow to be of much service, and 

 the streams which unite to form it are mere 

 mountain torrents, and none of them naviga- 

 ble. The physical conformation of this pass is 

 very peculiar. The Lake Rinihue is one of a 

 chain of lakes lying along the western versant of 

 the Andes, of which the principal are Lakes Villa 

 Rica, Calafquen, Panguipulli, Rinihue, Ranco, 

 Puyegue, Rupunco, and Llanquihue, nearly all 



of them connected with each other, and at the 

 same time with streams falling into the Pacific ; 

 but the Lake Rinihue is also connected with a 

 chain of lakes crossing the Andes by a stream 

 having a rapid descent ; and while the principal 

 outlet of that lake is the Valdivia River, flow- 

 ing into the Pacific, it also finds an outlet 

 through Lake Pachucico and Lacar, eastward, 

 and it is said into one of the affluents of the 

 Rio Negro, though this is somewhat uncertain. 



In Chile, the eminent geographer M. Pissis, 

 of Santiago, has continued to prosecute his 

 geodesic investigations in regard to the sum- 

 mits of the Andes within that republic, and has 

 developed recently two interesting facts, one 

 that Aconcagua has wrongly been placed 

 among the volcanoes, a fact which the English 

 geologist Sir David Forbes has also ascertained 

 concerning Sorata and Illimani in Bolivia. 

 Neither of these three summits manifest any 

 evidences of volcanic action. M. Pissis has 

 also definitively settled the height of Aconcagua 

 at 22,422 feet. The Chilean Government has 

 continued to establish and strengthen its colo- 

 nies in Southern Chile or Araucania, and has 

 now new but strong settlements at Mulchen 

 (mostly of German emigrants), at Lebu and Au 

 gol. 



In E0EOPE the geographical progress of the 

 year has consisted mainly in the new and more 

 complete geographic, geologic, and geodesic sur- 

 veys of the principal States, in the fixing by 

 new observations the height of some of the 

 mountain summits, and in the measurement of 

 several arcs of meridian of greater or less ex- 

 tent. Among the most admirable contribu- 

 tions made to geographical science during 

 the year, are Petermann's series of Physical 

 and Statistical Charts of the empire of Austria, 

 nine in number, and comprising the hydro- 

 graphy, orography, geology, climatography, 

 hyetography, ethnography, population, relig- 

 ions, agriculture, manufactures, and mines of 

 Austria. By a skilful use of the colors of chro- 

 mo-lithography he has succeeded in presenting 

 all these points to the eye in the most interest- 

 ing and impressive manner. Mr. Petermann 

 has also executed a bird's-eye view of Switzer- 

 land, giving by variety of colors the comparative 

 elevation of each section, and a still more dis- 

 tinct chart of the region of the Upper Rhine 

 from Glarus to Todi and Vorab, in which each 

 increase of elevation of 1,000 feet is designated 

 by a different shade of green. 



In an essay on the geography of Switzerland 

 accompanying these charts, Mr. Petermann 

 gives extended tables of the meteorology, tem- 

 perature, pressure of the atmosphere and winds 

 of Switzerland, as well as statistics of the 

 height of the mountains, population, wealth, 

 and resources of the little Confederation. His 

 statement of the nationalities, or rather of the 

 national affinities of the Swiss, is as follows : 

 1,681,000 may be reckoned as Germans, speak- 

 ing that language ordinarily; 540,000 French; 

 129,300 Italians ; 42,400 Roumanians or gypsies. 



