GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY. 



381 





vey issned early in 1886, and is said to be laid 

 down on a British Admiralty chart of 1853. 

 The fact seems to be that while such a river 

 was known to flow into Icy Bay, it had never 

 before been explored. Lieut. Schwatka de- 

 scribed it as from a mile to a mile and a half 

 wide at a distance of six or eight miles from 

 its mouth. Its great volume led the explorers 

 to believe that it must head far beyond the 

 mountains, and break through them at Re- 

 partan Pass. As to the scientific results of 

 the expedition, Prof. Libbey says he found 

 much that was interesting, particularly in eth- 

 nology. He made special studies of the Ya- 

 kutat Indians. He does not agree with the 

 theory that the peculiar valleys known as 

 cirques, or amphitheatres, are the result of 

 volcanic action. Those on the side of Mount 

 St. Elias have been regarded as evidence that it 

 is an extinct volcano, half of whose crater has 

 been carried away. He believes, on the con- 

 trary, that the amphitheatres are due to ice- 

 erosion. The movement of the ice of the 

 Agassiz Glacier he estimates at from eight to 

 ten feet a day. Of a discovery at Sitka he says : 



The Coast-Survey map of Kruzof i3land, which lies 

 off that town, gives three mountains at its end the 

 extinct volcano of Mount Edgecumbe and two others 

 which are now unnamed, but which, I heard, have 

 been named on an old Russian map. I camped by 

 Mount Edgecumbe, and, climbing up its side, I made 

 the discovery that it is a mere parasitic cone on the 

 side of a much larger and more ancient volcano. No 

 one has ever described the crater of the older vol- 

 cano, which lies between Mount Edgecumbe and the 

 other two mountains directlv to the north of it. The 

 remarkable feature about this crater is that it is five 

 miles across in one direction and three in the other, 

 making it the largest known crater in northern lati- 

 tudes. It has a level floor from 1,500 to 2,000 feet 

 below the upper edge of the rim, which is covered 

 with beautilul forests, and contains a number of 

 beautiful little lakes. In its center is a cone, which 

 is evidently the monument of the volcano's last 

 struggle for existence. That crater was the origin of 

 all this part of Kruzof island. The lava overflows, 

 resulting in a formation like the Giant's Causeway, 

 undoubtedly came from the old crater and formed the 

 entire south end of the island. After the bi volcano 

 became extinct the smaller one was formed on the 

 line of fracture on the other's southern slope. Two 

 distinct types of volcanic action are represented here 

 one in which lava must have been very fluid and 

 have run from the side of the old crater, the other a 

 more recent overflow from the cone of Mount Edge- 

 cumbe. The latter volcano was the more violently 

 eruptive of the two, threw out more ashes, and accu- 

 mulated a cone 2,000 feet higher than the other, 

 which gave rise to the now corrected idea that it was 

 the original volcano. 



According to measurements made by Capt. 

 0. E. Dutton, of the United States Geological 

 Survey, in July, the deepest inland water of 

 the United States is Lake Crater, a small lake 

 in Southwestern Oregon. Its shores are so 

 steep that the surface of the water can be 

 reached at only a few points. The depths 

 measured were from 853 to 1,996 feet (260 to 

 608 metres), and it is believed that there are 

 still greater depths. According to "Wheeler, 

 the lake lies at a height of 7,143 feet, or 2,177 

 metres. 



The alleged discovery of the so-called Lake 

 Glazier, beyond Itasca Lake and connected 

 with it, as the real source of the Mississippi, 

 by Capt. Glazier, is disputed; since the de- 

 scription of the location of the lake seems to 

 correspond with that of a lake laid down on a 

 map of the Government survey of 1875, and 

 there called Elk Lake. 



South America. A journey to explore the up- 

 per tributaries of the Amazon, undertaken by 

 Richard Payer, has been attended with suc- 

 cess, and some gaps in the map of that region 

 will be filled as the result of his researches. 

 He explored the Ucayali and the Pachitea and 

 its confluents. The cause of the long delay in 

 the examination of the region of the Pachitea, 

 he says, must be the savage character of the 

 Cassivos, who have their dwellings along its 

 banks. " Their horrible weapons," he says, 

 " I had an opportunity to admire in a settle- 

 ment where forty of them were stacked ; they 

 are made with great skill, and the finest woods 

 are used. Of the other Indian tribes in the 

 region, the Lorenzos and the Campas are most 

 noteworthy. The latter made upon me an im- 

 pression of the greatest harmlessness and child- 

 likeness; everything aroused their surprise; 

 and when I showed them our drawings of per- 

 sons and landscapes they were overcome with 

 astonishment." 



He found two hot springs near the banks of 

 the Pachitea, about eight or ten days' jour- 

 ney apart. The Sibivos, a tribe on the Uca- 

 yali, he describes as a frightful sight for a 

 European. Their hands and faces are painted 

 blue, their arms and legs bedecked with ani- 

 mals' teeth and glass-pearls, and their bodies 

 marked with arabesques, giving them a strange 

 and diabolical appearance. Their speech is 

 lively and wild, their behavior obtrusive, and 

 very different from that of the Indians on the 

 Parima. 



The region of the upper Chubut, in Pata- 

 gonia, was explored by M. Fontana, Governor 

 of the territory of Chubut, in the winter of 

 1885-'86. He confirms the view of Muster, 

 that the Patagonian Cordilleras do not form 

 one unbroken chain, but are broken at several 

 points by the valleys of rivers that flow into 

 the Pacific. He made an excursion to the Gulf 

 of St. George, but did not find there the mouth 

 of the river of the same name, as laid down on 

 the maps. The colony of Chubut was founded 

 by emigrants from Wales. 



Islands. On a journey into the less known 

 parts of New Guinea, between November, 1885, 

 and January, 1886, Capt. J. Strachan explored 

 the upper waters of the Baxter river, in a small 

 steamer, but failed to ascertain whether the 

 supposed connection between the Baxter and 

 Fly rivers really exists. He and his compan- 

 ions believe the territory visited to be well 

 adapted to the cultivation of all tropical prod- 

 ucts. Returning to the coast, they followed it 

 eastward to the Gulf of Papua, and discovered 

 five smaller rivers, navigable for from 10 to 30 



