962 General Notes. [September, 
La Paz, and it is thus the natural outlet for the trade of the com- 
mercial capital of Bolivia, as well as for the rich forest country, 
full of rubber, cinchona and other valuable products. Yet until 
the voyage of Dr. Heath, in 1880, this river had never been com- 
pletely explored, and its lower course was so dreaded that rubber 
collectors who had established their camps nearer to its junction 
with the Madre de Dios than to Reyes, sent their gatherings to 
Reyes, thence by land to the Yacuma, and thence down the Ya- 
cuma and Mamoré. Many of the ravines and upper courses of 
the tributaries of the Beni are known, but the Madidi has not yet 
been followed down to its junction with the Beni. 
Dr. Heath descended as far as “ California,” a recently formed 
rubber camp, in a good boat, but his exploration of the to oe 
unknown region below this was undertaken and executed in al 
old boat caulked with corn husks and mended with bark ando | 
mud. At the junction of the Amaru-mayu and Beni, the former 
is 2350 feet wide, the latter 735 feet. Five miles below the river 
spreads out to a mile in width. The rapids were safely d 
the Mamoré reached and ascended, and in four months from, his 
departure Dr, Heath was again at Reyes, where he was rec i 
with honors. In 1882 he ascended the Beni from Reyes to — 
a Paz. 
mouth of the 
the fifteenth a 
century, and Maldonado with his band of gallant Cuzco youths Be 
in 1861. The Amaru-mayu is to Cuzco, the Incas’ ancient ig 
tal, what the Beni is to La Paz. The Inca Yupanqui 
escended 
value, and a military expedition sent by him not only W 
it, but reduced under the Inca rule the countries as far as te 
eni, ee 
After the Spanish conquests the rivers and the forest a 
around became a land of mystery, and though the ag 
Cuzco made many attempts to descend the Amaru-mayl, BT 
not until 1861 that the whole course was traversed by Mal ie 
and seven companions, four only of whom reached in safety "° 
first Brazilian town. en 
Asta.—M. Millct, once second in command of the Dip ae 
pedition to Tong-king, gives, in a recent number of the AA 
Scientifique, a valuable account of that country. + 
of Annam consists of Cochin China and Tong-ki 
ment to welcome the French as liberators. wines 
king is rather more than a quarter of that of ante 
Cochin-China rather less. The principal streams are 
river, which rises in Yunnan and crosses Tong-king from 
