336 



GEOGEAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOYEEY IN 1875. 



first discovered by Mr. Jackson, are in better 

 preservation and of more workmanlike con- 

 struction than anything before found. Some 

 whole towns were discovered protected and 

 kept dry by the sheltering rocks, with the 

 roofs of some of the houses still preserved. 



The expedition has been accompanied this 

 season by the distinguished entomologists Drs. 

 A. S. Packard and P. R. Uhler, the results of 

 whose observations will be given in an ap- 

 pendix to the report. 



In a bulletin of the survey a report of the 

 mines and geology of the San Juan country 

 was issued, which was prepared by Dr. End- 

 lich. 



The Wheeler Expedition has almost com- 

 pleted its task. Not much new has come to 

 light in this year's explorations. The main 

 division, Lieutenant Boyland's, started out on 

 the 20th of June. In the party were, besides 

 Dr. Loew, the surveyor Thompson, the topog- 

 rapher Birnse, and the meteorologist G. Has- 

 son. The route traversed by them was from 

 Los Angeles over the Cayon Pass to the Mo- 

 have Kiver, whose course they followed to the 

 spot where it disappears suddenly from the 

 surface ; thence to Ivanpah, a small mining 

 station on the border of Nevada, then to Cot- 

 tonwood Island, in the Colorado River, which 

 is six miles long and is inhabited by Pah-ute 

 Indians ; following along the Colorado to Cal- 

 ville, an old Mormon settlement, they passed 

 over the mountains to the Rio Virgin ; then 

 they entered Arizona and the Hualpais Moun- 

 tains, which abound in minerals. 



Dr. E. D. Cope's "Report of the Vertebrate 

 Paleontology of Colorado," in the " Memoirs 

 of the Geological Survey under Dr. Hayden," 

 describes formations rich in fauna belonging to 

 the Cretaceous, Eocene, Miocene, and Pliocene 

 periods. Dr. Cope has also published a sys- 

 tematic catalogue of the Eocene vertebrata of 

 New Mexico, the fruit of the explorations of 

 1874. It comprises 47 species, 24 of them en- 

 tirely new. 



An essay on the Minnesota Valley, by Major 

 J. K. Warren, estimates that the valley was 

 once drained by a gigantic river, which, issu- 

 ing from the basin of Lake Winnipeg, flowed 

 into the Minnesota and Mississippi, carrying 

 off the waters which now pass through Nel- 

 son's River into Hudson's Bay. He explains 

 the altered direction, of the drainage by an 

 elevation of the southern part of the continent 

 and a sinking of the northern. 



SOUTH AMEEIOA. A terribly destructive 

 earthquake laid waste the district of Cucuta, 

 in the republic of Colombia, on the 18th of 

 May. The town was entirely demolished, and 

 five other towns were nearly destroyed ; in the 

 district over which the disaster extended 16,- 

 000 out of a population of 35,000 perished. 

 The earthquake at the end took the form of a 

 volcanic eruption. 



JEuKOPE. Herr Verkruzen has, on a third 

 trip to Finmark and other parts of Norway for 



the Riippel Museum, of Frankfort, made a large 

 collection of the marine fauna of the fiords 

 and around the island of Mageroe. Among 

 the mollusks were some of remarkable size, 

 compared with the same types in lower lati- 

 tudes. 



A German naturalist, Oscar Grimm, has 

 spent three months dredging in the Caspian 

 Sea at Baku on the west coast and at other 

 points. He reports that animal life is very 

 abundant in the western waters, though singu- 

 larly wanting on the eastern shores, which he 

 explains by the washing away of sand from 

 the adjacent steppe. Among the new forms 

 of life reported are 6 new species of fish, 

 Gobius and Bentophilus, 20 mollusks, 35 crusta- 

 cea, including huge varieties of Gammarus, and 

 20 annelids. 



PALESTINE. The second expedition sent out 

 by the American Society for the exploration of 

 the Holy Land, under the direction of Colonel 

 Lane, departed in June. Their object is the 

 triangulation of the tract of country east of the 

 Jordan, between the 31st and 33d degrees of 

 latitude. This survey, which is expected to take 

 two years, will join on to the survey of the Eng- 

 lish society. The party has two assistant sur- 

 veyors, an archa3ologist, and a photographer; 

 and it is proposed that the students who grad- 

 uate from the Protestant Syrian College of Bey- 

 rout shall join them for a few months. The 

 company reached Palestine in the autumn, and 

 commenced their work, though without the 

 services of Mr. Van Dyk, who was laid up with 

 bronchitis at Beyrout, and Mr. Treat, who was 

 attacked with fever at Jerusalem. 



The English surveying party in Palestine, 

 under the management of Lieutenant Conder, 

 commenced their work this year in February. 

 They surveyed a strip of the desert west of the 

 Dead Sea, visiting and planning Masada ; they 

 then crossed over to Beit Jibrin, and from 

 March till June occupied themselves with the 

 survey of the Philistine plain. Then, moving 

 north, they commenced the triangnlation of 

 the district of Galilee. On the 10th of July 

 they were unexpectedly assailed by Safed men, 

 and obliged to remove to Carmel. The extent 

 surveyed up to this time, from the beginning 

 of the year, was 1,200 square miles, leaving 

 1,300 square miles still to be surveyed in west- 

 .ern Palestine. The discovery of the site of 

 Adullam (Ayd el-Mish), by Clermont Ganneau, 

 was confirmed. Ascalon was surveyed, and the 

 remains of a second modern place were found, 

 which clears away the difficulties raised by 

 Prof. Pusey. Gaza was also surveyed, and the 

 supposed site of Gerar was examined. Among 

 the identifications proposed, about forty in 

 all, were Azekah, Shaaraim, Dilean, Zaanan, 

 Mizpeh, Gederoth, Libnah, Ether, Ashnab, 

 Achzib, Debir, Arab, Mount Seir, and Zano- 

 ah. In Jerusalem Lieutenant Conder discov- 

 ered the Asnerie, or the pilgrims' inn; the ex- 

 cavation of which disclosed rows of mangers still 

 preserved. At Nablus the floor and founda- 



