328 



GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY IN 1875. 



harvest for trade may be looked for from this 

 new field. The surveys in our own West have 

 been prosecuted with unremitted industry, and 

 the triangulation of the whole country is now 

 all but complete: the new discoveries in the 

 Territories have been unimportant; though 

 some -new light has been thrown upon the 

 habits of that ancient, semi-civilized people, 

 who planted their dwelling-places so strangely 

 in the craggy fastnesses of dizzy canons. Of 

 arctic discovery there is no novelty to be re- 

 lated; but before many months remarkable 

 revelations may be brought to us by the most 

 completely equipped expedition, and the one 

 most intelligently planned, and most wisely 

 instructed by the failures and partial successes 

 of its predecessors, which has ever yet assailed 

 the icy barrier. The Challenger is still pros- 

 ecuting its hydrographic investigations, and 

 in the light of the new facts which they have 

 discovered, new theories of the nature and 

 character of the ocean's floods are growing in 

 the minds of speculative scientists. Another 

 ably-conducted expedition for marine explo- 

 ration was that of the German man-of-war Ga- 

 zelle. The exploration of the interesting Oxus 

 Valley is being carried on fitfully by the Rus- 

 sian military. The Germans are turning their 

 attention to the antiquities of Persia. The ex- 

 plorations which have lately been instituted by 

 the English and Americans in Palestine will 

 probably be conducted with vigor and method ; 

 and their investigations in this really neglected 

 field, in which the numerous researches of late 

 times have mostly been conducted by irresolute 

 triflers or bunglers, may be expected to throw 

 a flood of light upon the subjects of Biblical 

 topography and antiquities; so that scholars 

 will not much longer have to turn to the pages 

 of the Dutchman Kelandus, who wrote over a 

 century and a half ago, for the completest in- 

 vestigations into the ancient condition of the 

 land of the Bible. 



NEOEOLOGT. Lady Franklin, who prosecuted 

 with such devoted zeal the search for her ill- 

 starred husband some thirty years ago, has 

 passed away, though her noble labors have not 

 yet departed from the memory of the people, 

 nor will they soon be forgotten. She was but 

 four or five years younger than her husband. 



General W. H. Dufour, editor of the great 

 topographical map of Switzerland, died at Ge- 

 neva in July. 



Commodore James Graham Goodenough 

 was murdered on the island of Santa Cruz by 

 the natives, on the 15th of August. After 

 conveying Sir Arthur Gordon, the first Gov- 

 ernor of the Feejee Islands, to his destination. 

 Commodore Goodenough started out on a 

 round cruise through the South Sea in order 

 to become more nearly acquainted with the 

 islanders. After being hospitably received 

 everywhere else, he landed on the Santa Cruz, 

 the largest of the group of fifteen islands of 

 the same name. After a feignedly friendly 

 reception by the natives, and when presents 



had been given and traffic conducted, the com- 

 modore with some officers and sailors started 

 to visit a village lying near, leaving their 

 weapons in the boat in order not to arouse 

 suspicions. Then Commodore Goodenough 

 was struck by two arrows, and five sailors 

 were wounded. The ship's company set fire 

 to the village, and after sailing toward a cooler 

 climate, on the 20th, the commodore died, and 

 on the following two days two of the sailors. 

 On these same islands, two or three years ago, 

 Bishop Patteson was in a similar manner 

 treacherously murdered. The occasion for these 

 murders may have been former kidnapping of 

 some of the islanders. The journals of Com- 

 modore Goodenough kept during his Poly- 

 nesian cruise, containing interesting observa- 

 tions on the formation of coral reefs, are 

 shortly to appear in London. 



Werner Munzinger, born at Alten, Switzer- 

 land, in 1832, an ardent geographical scholar 

 and explorer, was recently murdered on the 

 road from Tajurra to Shoa. He pursued com- 

 merce in his early life in Alexandria, and lived 

 some time in the Bogos country at Keren, 

 becoming familiar with Abyssinian affairs, and 

 thoroughly conversant with the Amharic 

 language. He was one of Heuglin's party in 

 1861, and was afterward British consul at 

 Massowa, and furnished valuable assistance to 

 the Abyssinian Expedition. In 1870 he was 

 appointed Governor of Massowa and Suakin by 

 the Egyptian Government, and was efficient in 

 putting down the disorders on the border of 

 Abyssinia. He was the author of " Die Sitten 

 und das Rechtder Bogos "(1859), and "Ostafri- 

 canische Studien " (Schaffhausen, 1864). 



Sir William E. Logan, late Director-General 

 of the Geological Survey of Canada, died in 

 England, in June, at the age of 77 years. Born 

 in Montreal, the deceased entered trade, de- 

 voting himself collaterally to geological studies. 

 He has written much on coal formations and 

 other geological subjects, and for his useful 

 labors in Canadian geology received the honor 

 of knighthood. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY AND CARTOLOGY. The press 

 has been exceedingly busy in every country this 

 last year in the production of geographical 

 works of manifold variety. The fruits of the late 

 explorations in Central Africa, in Australia and 

 New Guinea, and in the northern seas, have 

 been presented to the reading public in a long 

 list of popular accounts and narratives ; and 

 detailed and scientific reports, in some cases 

 illustrated by the aid of the very perfect ap- 

 pliances of modern graphic art, bear witness to 

 the high scientific purposes which govern geo- 

 graphical research to-day. The subject of 

 ocean circulation, which very much engages 

 speculation at present, has called forth a 

 number of studious theoretical treatises, elabo- 

 rated in the light of the late hydrographical 

 investigations; and the newly - discovered 

 fauna, by which the catalogue of marine 

 zoography has been greatly enlarged, has 



