GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES IN 1873. 



315 



ometer, by which they made it 17,751 feet; by 

 the thermometrical apparatus, by which it was 

 a few feet less, and finally by triangulation and 

 actual levels, by which it was 17,574 feet, 

 which is believed to be its real altitude. At 

 2 p. M. the thermometer indicated a tempera- 

 ture of 36 Fahr., and the barometer an atmos- 

 pheric pressure of 8 pounds to the square inch. 

 Galena is to be made a meteorological station. 



A railway has been projected across the 

 Andes, to be called the "Transandine Rail- 

 way," from Buenos Ayres to Chili by the 

 ' I'lunchon " Pass, and the survey for it was 

 made by Mr. R. Crawford, an accomplished 

 English civil engineer, who has reported to the 

 Royal Geographical Society many interesting 

 facts concerning this little - known region. 

 Much of the country is volcanic, though the 

 volcanoes with one or two exceptions seem 

 to be now extinct, but a part of the region 

 through which the proposed railway would 

 pass, that lying between the provinces of San 

 Luis and Mendoza, was utterly barren, and 

 covered with scoriae, ashes, and volcanic cin- 

 ders. The Rio Grande, whose course they 

 followed for a long distance, proved to have 

 a different and much longer course than the 

 South American geographer Rosetti had as- 

 signed to it. Mr. Crawford explored it for a 

 distance of 142 miles, and it was still far from 

 entering the Pampas, though Sefior Rosetti 

 liad made its whole course, from its junction 

 with the Rio Tudillo to the Pampas, only 81 

 miles. It received also large tributaries which 

 were not laid down on any map. The plains 

 about 100 miles west of Buenos Ayres are 

 from 150 to 160 feet above the sea-level, and 

 rise to about 2,800 fet at the foot of the 

 Andes. The highest point on the Planchon 

 Pass i? 8,2'25 feet above the sea. The princi- 

 pal animals were small deer (Certui campet- 

 tria). very numerous on the plains ; the South 

 American ostrich (Rhea), vizcacbas (a small, 

 slate-colored animal about the size of a cat), 

 foxes, Patagonian hares, lizards four feet long, 

 two or three species of armadillo, wild-cats, 

 and pumas. The jaguar is said to inhabit this 

 region, but none of Mr. Crawford's party had 

 a glimpse of him. Of hirds of prey there were 

 condors, blue eagles, black, bald-headed, and 

 othor vultures, a great variety of hawks, and 

 three or four kinds of owls. Numbers of wild- 

 ducks frequented the little lakes and marshes, 

 and numerous South American birds were dis- 

 covered, Imtno wild-cattle, andfew wild-horses. 

 The distance from Buenos Ayres to Valparaiso 

 by the proposed route was 1,103J English miles, 

 of which 319} were already constructed. 



A stone has been found on a t'nrm in Para- 

 hyba in Brazil containing an inscription, 

 which, upon examination by the director of 

 the museum of Rio Janeiro, was pronounced to 

 be in Phrvnician characters. 



Should this be corroborated, it gives plausi- 

 bility to the theory urged some years ago by 

 a French scientist on philological grounds, 



that the Amazons was the Ophir of the Script- 

 ures, and that it was visited regularly by the 

 fleets of Hiram, King of Tyre, and Solomon. 

 These Phoenician inscriptions refer to the time 

 of Hiram and Solomon, and name the port of 

 Ezion-Geber as that from which they set sail. 



III. EUROPE. The little Republic of Switz- 

 erland has been very active and persistent in 

 its geographical investigations. Its mountains 

 have been mapped and measured, its valleys 

 examined, and their climate, soil, and tempera- 

 ture noted ; its glaciers have been explored and 

 their progress noticed, and every thing apper- 

 taining to its physical or political geography, 

 chartography, or geology, has been carefully 

 recorded. At some time every peak of the 

 Alps has been measured accurately or prox- 

 imately, and in 1873 we have the measure- 

 ment of the principal summits of the central 

 Alpine chain, hitherto neglected for the more 

 widely-known peaks of other portions of the 

 Alps. The summits of this chain do not rise 

 so high as those of Mont Blanc, the Jnngfrau, 

 or the Matterhorn. M. Ziegler, a Swiss cor- 

 responding member of the Royal Geographical 

 Society, gives the altitude of several of them 

 as follows : Monte de Piazzi, 3,570 metres= 

 11,602.5 feet; Monte dclla Neve, 2,805 metres 

 =9,116 feet; Colmo d'Entova, in the Val 

 Malenco, 3,226 metres=10,484.5 feet. The 

 Pass della Tempesta, in the Val Lantcrna, 

 2,560 metres= 8,320 feet; theColle Verva, in 

 the district of Bernio, 2,400 metre? =7,800 feet. 



The Admiralty surveys of the British Gov- 

 ernment in the European seas have been, as 

 usual, fruitful in good results. The harbors on 

 the cast coast of England have been resur- 

 veyed, and the changes in the depths produced 

 by both natural and artificial causes carefully 

 noted. The explorations in the Mediterranean, 

 the Dardanelles, and the Sea of Marmora, have 

 brought to light the fact that there are strong 

 under-currents in these seas running eastward, 

 while the furface-current sets from the Black 

 Sea toward the Mediterranean. 



Recent excavations made in Rome show that 

 the ancient city, under the Tarquins, was large, 

 strongly fortified, and contained an immense 

 population. This is contrary to the impres- 

 sion of modern historical critics, and confirma- 

 tory of the tradition which prevailed in Rome 

 in the time of Livy. Many photographs of the 

 excavations in their present state have been 

 exhibited in London, which show the great size 

 and importance of the earliest buildings in 

 Rome. The foundations of the ancient city 

 have been laid open, which consist of enormous 

 works, among of which were great tanks and 

 wells. They are of oblong blocks of tufa, put 

 together without mortar, the style of building 

 resembling that of the ruins of Etrnrian cities. 



IV. ASIA. On this great continent geo- 

 graphical discoveries are constantly going for- 

 ward, and the past year they were more 

 abundant and interesting than ever before. 

 The explorations in Palestine have been con- 



