330 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES IN 1872. 



tially at least, in 1871, but of which there 

 was no published account until the summer or 

 autumn of 1872, and in some cases not until 

 the winter of 1873. Some activity has heen 

 manifested in arctic exploration, new expe- 

 ditions having been sent from Germany, Swe- 

 den, Austria, and Russia. Private explorers 

 were at work from Norway, from Scotland, 

 and from Denmark, some of whom had reached 

 a higher latitude than had previously been 

 attained, had explored Gillis Land and King 

 Carl's Land, which prove not to be the same, 

 had circumnavigated Novaya Zemlaya, and 

 made many interesting discoveries. But little 

 has been heard from our own expedition under 

 Captain C. F. Hall. In Montana, Dakota, 

 Colorado, and Arizona, the work of explora- 

 tion has gone forward unceasingly, and has 

 been rewarded with many interesting dis- 

 coveries. In South America the Southern 

 affluents of the Amazons and its tributaries 

 have been opened to steam-navigation, and 

 by a number of well-planned railways the 

 heart of the South American Continent is put 

 in easy communication with the commercial 

 world. In Asia there seems to be compara- 

 tively little left to discover ; only the filling in 

 of some details of the picture the courses of 

 rivers, the heights of mountains, and the eleva- 

 tion of mountain-passes ; the position of lakes, 

 of deserts, of lofty and arid plains, and the num- 

 bers and characteristics of some of the many 

 nomadic tribes, whose habitations are mainly 

 in tents, though some of them are gathered 

 from time to time in the walled towns of Cen- 

 tral Asia. We weary of these monotonous 

 details, and turn to other lands, like those 

 of the African Continent, where there is more 

 variety. Here we hear that Sir Samuel Baker, 

 with his little army, is pushing southward tow- 

 ard the sources of the Nile, and, thanks to our 

 countryman, Stanley, who either found Living- 

 stone, or was found by him, we are once more 

 in communication with that veteran explorer. 

 Still farther South, Kiliman-djaro has been 

 ascended, and from its lofty summit the lakes 

 and rivers of Central Africa glittered in the 

 sun ; while south of the Zambezi, and between 

 that river and the Limpopo, not only have 

 gold and diamonds been largely discovered, 

 but the ruins of a great city, which may prove 

 to be the Ophir of the Scriptures, or the Queen 

 of Sheba's capital, or something else. 



One feature of geographical progress the 

 past year has been, the great advance in char- 

 tography. The completion of an elaborate 

 Atlas and Gazetteer of the United States, and 

 of two or three maps of the same, the exten- 

 sive map of "Western Asia, now in preparation 

 by the East Indian Council of the British 

 Government ; the extensile and beautiful maps 

 of the trigonometrical survey of India; the 

 large accession to the maps of the Admiralty 

 survey, and the new atlases and single maps, 

 of rare perfection and elegance, which Kiepert, 

 von Spruner, and Petermann, have added to 



their publications the past year, including one 

 by the last-named geographer, of the lake- 

 region of Central Africa, showing the routes 

 of Livingstone for six years, as well as those 

 of Stanley and all previous explorers, are in- 

 dications of great progress in this all-important 

 department of geographical science. 



The losses, by death, of eminent contribu- 

 tors to geographical knowledge, were less than 

 in most former years. Of General FKANCIB 

 RAWDON CHESNET, the explorer of the Eu- 

 phrates and Tigris, and of the Red Sea navi- 

 gation, the pioneer of the Overland route to 

 India, and ever the zealous geographer, we 

 have spoken elsewhere in this volume. He 

 died February 1st. (See CHESNET, General 

 FKANCIS RAWDON.) 



JAMES CHAPMAN, a South-African traveller, 

 and author of two or three volumes on the 

 South-African region, where he had been the 

 companion of Livingstone, Gordon Gumming, 

 Anderson, and Thomas Baines, died at Du 

 Toit's Pan, in the Diamond Fields, February 

 6, 1872. His "Travels in the Interior of 

 South Africa," published in 1868, to which 

 we have made reference in former volumes of 

 the ANNUAL, were interesting, and added mate- 

 rially to our geographical knowledge of that 

 region. He had been a Fellow of the Royal 

 Geographical Society since 1867. 



JOHN POWER, C. E., for many years a resi- 

 dent of Central America, and 'the proprietor 

 of the Panama Star and Herald, died in Eng- 

 land, May 13, 1872, in the 51st year of his 

 age. He was a native of Youghal, Ireland, 

 but had been actively engaged in literary and 

 scientific pursuits, and the management of his 

 paper for many years. He had been a Fellow 

 of the Royal Geographical Society since 1854, 

 and had published, in 1868, "A Description 

 of the Province of Sancto Domingo del Darien 

 in 1754, translated from the Original in the 

 National Archives of Bogota," and several 

 smaller geographical works. He was engaged 

 at the time of his death on a work upon the 

 "History and Material Progress of Central 

 America and the Adjoining Countries." 



Before proceeding to a detailed narrative of 

 the discoveries of the year, we give a list of the 

 most important contributions to geographical 

 science published in this country during 1872. 



GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS. 



U. S. Geological Survey of Montana and Adjacent 

 Territory. By Prof F. V. Hayden. 



U. S. Geological Survey of Colorado and New Mex- 

 ico. By Prof. F. V. Hayden. 



U. S. Geological Survey of Wyoming and Contigu- 

 ous Territory. By Prof. F. V. Hayden. 



U. S. Geological Survey of Nebraska: Final Re- 

 port. By. Prof. F. V. Hayden. 



Preliminary Eeport concerning Explorations and 

 Surveys in Nevada and Arizona. By First-Lieuten- 

 ant George M. Wheeler. 



Report of the Chief Signal-Officer of the War De- 

 partment. By General A. J. Myer. 



STATE REPORTS. 



Geological Survey of Ohio. By Prof. J. S. New- 

 berry, State Geologist. 

 Geological Survey of Indiana. 





