K^NS^S CITY 



Review of Science and Industry, 



A MONTHLY RECORD OF PROGRESS IN 



SCIENCE, MECHANIC ARTS AND LITERATURE. 

 VOL. V. SEPTEMBER, 1881. NO. 5. 



GEOGRAPHY. 



HEATH'S DISCOVERIES IN SOUTH AMERICA. II. 



BY PROF. JOHN D. PARKER, KANSAS CITY, MO. 



In the April number of the Review, it was my privilege to announce the 

 recent important discoveries of Dr. Heath in South America. In the present 

 paper, further information is given regarding those discoveries, in the form of 

 correspondence, which is accompanied with a map of the recently explored sec- 

 tion of the Beni River. 



Dr. Heath has also sent carefully executed drawings in ink of the hiero- 

 glyphics on the rocks of the various falls of the Madeira River. They were evi- 

 dently left inscribed on the rocks by a pre-historic people, and are highly inter- 

 esting as studies for the antiquary. Like the hieroglyphics of Egypt they may 

 finally be deciphered and give us some clue to the history of the ancient people 

 who left them as vestiges of their existence. It is hoped that fac-similes of these 

 hieroglyphics may soon be given to the public. 



The following account has been compiled from the correspondence of the 

 explorer by his brother Dr. Ivon D. Heath, of Wyandotte, Kansas : 



The Doctor's letter is dated, Los Reyes, Departamento del Beni, Bolivia, 

 April ist, 1881. A month previous he had sent a letter, full of details of his ex- 

 plorations, which has not been received. 



The letter of April ist, with which was a very accurate and skillfully exe- 

 cuted pen and ink map, twelve feet long, of the Beni River, a table of meteoro- 

 logical observations and an atlas of drawings of hieroglyphics from the rocks of 

 the falls of the Madeira was sent all the way to the American Minister at La Paz 



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