GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATION'S AND DISCOVERIES IN 1871. 341 



5. WEST INDIES. The southern shore of the 

 Caribbean Sea, as well as the coasts of some of 

 the larger of the southern islands of the West 

 Indian Archipelago, was surveyed in 1871 

 under the direction of the English Admiralty, 

 and accurate charts made. 



R. II. Major, Esq., one of the secretaries of 

 the Royal Geographical Society, read a paper 

 at their meeting, May 8, 1871, in which he 

 detailed the result of his investigations in re- 

 gard to the island on which Columbus first 

 landed in 1492. The great navigator recorded 

 that the island was called by the Indians Gua- 

 nahani, and that he gave it the name of San 

 Salvador. The historians have differed mate- 

 rially as to which of the Bahamas was entitled 

 to this honor. N"avarrete and some others 

 believed it to be the Great Turk, the northern- 

 most of the Turk Islands ; Washington Irving 

 and Humboldt pronounced in favor of Oat 

 Island, which has been called on the maps San 

 Salvador ; Senhor de Varnhagen puts in a claim 

 for Mayagnana; while Mufioz, Captain Becher, 

 and Mr. Major, were convinced that Watling^s 

 Island was the true G-uanahani. This result 

 is attained by Mr. Major from an independent 

 study of Columbus's diary, from Herrera's map 

 of the Bahamas, published in 1601, and from 

 the arguments of Mufloz, which have not been 

 refuted by any writer on the subject. 



IV. SOUTH AMERICA. In the ANNUAL CY- 

 CLOPAEDIA for the year 1870, an account was 

 given of a remarkable water-fall in British 

 Guiana,, called the Great Kaieteur, situated on 

 the river Potaro, an affluent of the Essequibo. 

 This fall, as well as some others in the Potaro, 

 was described by the discoverer as formed by 

 the precipitation of that river over the edge 

 of the sandstone table-land of the interior into 

 the lower country of the Essequibo Valley. A 

 subsequent careful exploration ordered by 

 Governor Scott evolved the following facts in 

 regard to it : The head of the fall is 1,130 feet 

 above the level of the sea. Its width is 370 

 feet at the top of the fall. The total height is 

 822 feet. For the first 741 feet the water falls 

 as a perpendicular column into a basin below, 

 from which it continues its downward course 

 over a sloping cataract in front, 81 feet in 

 height, and through the interstices of great 

 blocks of rock to the river-bed below. The 

 scenery and vegetation around ,it are full of 

 beauty. Mr. J. G. Sawkins, the director of 

 the Geological Survey of British Guiana, de- 

 scribed, in connection with the paper on the 

 Kaieteur Fall, a very peculiar mountain of the 

 same region, Mount Roraima, first visited by 

 Schomburgk. It is a huge mass of light-red 

 sandstone rock, 18 miles in length, with per- 

 pendicular sides and perfectly level summit, 

 rising 7,500 feet above the level of the sea. 

 The flanks, forming bare, vertical walls, 1,500 

 feet high, are insurmountable; but the sum- 

 mit is known to be the source of several 

 streams which leap from the edge of the pla- 

 teau in magnificent cascades, and flow in dif- 



ferent ways to feed the Essequibo, the Orinoco, 

 and the Amazons. 



In Peru the trans-Andean rivers are still 

 undergoing investigation to ascertain the best 

 route and the river navigable to the highest 

 point to furnish an outlet for the products of 

 the western slope of Peru to the markets of 

 Europe and the United States. The Perene 

 and Pachitea Rivers Expedition (see ANNUAL 

 CYCLOPAEDIA for 1870) is still continued, and 

 Mr. Arthur Wetherman has been engaged in 

 surveying the Utcubamba. 



Bolivia and the interior of Brazil are equally 

 interested in a somewhat similar exploration 

 going on farther south, the survey of the rap- 

 ids of the Madeira River undertaken by Messrs. 

 Joseph and Francis Keller, engineers in the 

 employ of the Brazilian Government. The 

 object of these surveys was to ascertain what 

 engineering works would be necessary in order 

 to overcome the obstacles which these rapids 

 offer to rapid communication between the At- 

 lantic and the interior provinces of Brazil and 

 the greater part of Bolivia. According to the 

 survey of the Messrs. Keller, there are no fewer 

 than 18 cataracts and rapids in succession on 

 the Madeira, obstructing navigation between 

 the Mamore and the Amazons, having a total 

 fall of water of 228| feet in an extent of nearly 

 230 miles. They recommend a railway as the 

 best means of avoiding these great obstacles. 

 The importance of opening some route of com- 

 munication with the Atlantic, which shall be 

 both speedy and comparatively inexpensive, 

 can hardly be overstated. At the meeting of 

 the British Association in 1871, Mr. C. R. 

 Markham, one of the secretaries of the Royal 

 Geographical Society, stated that " the cost of 

 taking a ton of merchandise from Cuzco, the 

 capital of the Yncas, or from La Paz, the com- 

 mercial capital of Bolivia, to England, is about 

 40 ($200), the time five months. Under such 

 conditions, no produce but gold, silver, and cin- 

 chona-bark, would pay the expense of transit." 

 By the route of the Madeira and Amazons 

 " this voyage of five months will be reduced to 

 six weeks," while the expense would be lessened 

 in an equal proportion. The traffic between 

 this region, now almost secluded from com- 

 merce, and our American ports, would be enor- 

 mously increased, and, as the cost of freight 

 would be less than to Liverpool, we might rea- 

 sonably hope to take the larger share of the 

 trade. 



Prof. C. F. Hartt is still engaged in his explo- 

 rations in Brazil, and these, though mainly per- 

 taining to zoology and paleontology, will still 

 inure, indirectly at least, to the benefit of ge- 

 ography. 



The Argentine Republic, under the vigorous 

 and enlightened administration of President 

 Sarmiento, is making rapid progress in civiliza- 

 tion, industry, and the arts. Railroads, educa- 

 tion, and industrial, mechanical, and agricul- 

 tural exhibitions, are being pushed forward in 

 the various provinces, and the locomotive now 



