Gi General Notes. [December, 
the pilots and natives of the great and sudden changes in the rise 
and fall of the stream. The survey was, however, continued by 
the steam launch to San Antonio, a distance of about 325 miles, 
with the exception of the last thirty miles, which was, owing to 
an accident to the launch, made by Capt. Selfridge and Lieut. 
Perkins on board a Brazilian merchant steamer. Leaving the 
Enterprise on the 25th of June, the surveying party were again 
safe on board on the 2oth of July. The results of their observa- 
tions show that a navigable channel for ships drawing up to six- 
teen feet of water exists from the mouth of the Madeira to San 
Antonio, a distance of 500 miles. This channel is passable 
during nine months of the year, but during the time of low 
carried. The adjacent territory is very thinly populated. Large 
quantities of rubber are collected and shipped along the river, and 
also copaiba, sarsaparilla, copal and chouta, a black odoriferous 
gum used as a cement, 
ARCTIC EXPLORATION.—The schooner /lorence, Capt. Tyson, 
which was fitted out and sent by Capt. Howgate to Cumberland 
Gulf to procure skins, dogs, sledges and other material for the 
use of his expedition, has returned home, and from a dispatch 
by Capt. Tyson to the New York Herald, we learn that he sailed 
from New London on the 2d of August, 1877, and reached the 
Gulf after a tedious voyage of forty-one days. Here they 
remained in Niantilic harbor, latitude 65° 10’ north, longitude ` 
67° 30’ west, until October 1st, when they removed to Annatook 
harbor, at the head of the Gulf. There they passed the winter 
and spring. On the 1gth of July they sailed for Disco island, 
taking with them fifteen Esquimaux, men, women and children, 
twenty-eight dogs, a fair quantity of skin clothing and a great 
many skins. Arriving at Disco on July 31st, they remained 
until August 22d, when no intelligence of the expedition being 
received, they returned, after a difficult passage through the ice 
off Cape Mercy, to the Gulf. After discharging the Esquimaux 
they started on their voyage home on the 2d of September. 
Messrs. Kumlin and Sherman, the scientific members of the party, 
were very successful in the performance of their duties. The 
former has secured a large number of specimens, and the latter, 
aided by two of the crew, took hourly observations during the 
winter. The season has been a bad one. Melville Bay has been 
entirely blockaded by the ice, no whalers having been able to 
penetrate it, and the Danish ships have been unable to reach the 
upper settlements. 
Resutts oF THE Recent Britisa Arctic Expepirion.—Sir 
_ George Nares has, in his “ Narrative of a Voyage to the Polar 
_ Sea,” recently published, given more fully his reasons why he _ 
