460 



Progress of Geography in 1836-7. 



[April 



tracing the 220 miles of coast that are yet unknown between that point 

 and Captain James Ross's farthest. 



Cr^cw^anrf.— Captain James Ross, R. N., in his recent voyage in 

 search of the missing whalers, has obtained some new information 

 relative to the west coast; and the translation of Graah's Voyage to 

 Greenland, just published by the Geographical Society, will enable the 

 English reader to judge of the probabilities that may yet remain of 

 discovering the supposed lost colonies on the east coast of Green» 

 land. 



Canada.— kn arduous survey of the great river St. Lawrence, by 

 Captain Bayfield, R. N., under the direction of the Hydrographic 

 Office, has for several years been in progress ; and so valuable are his 

 charts acknowledged to be, that the pilots of Quebec petitioned govern- 

 ment for their immediate publication. They are now published, on the 

 scale of an inch to a mile, for the upper part of the river—for the lower 

 part, the scale is an inch to two miles and a half. To navigators fre= 

 quenting the St, Lawrence these charts will prove an invaluable 

 boon. 



United States.^ A large map of the United States, in twenty-four 

 sheets, on the scale of twelve inches to a degree, compiled from gene- 

 ral surveys by Mr. J), H. Burr, topographer to the Congress, is now 

 engraving in London, by Mr. John Arrowsmith, and will shortly be in 

 course of publication in the United Slates ; but preparations have been 

 long in progress for an elaborate triangulation of the whole union- 

 instruments of the most refined construction have been gradually pro- 

 vided—and a short trial, comprising about eighty miles along the coast, 

 has been already made under the directions of Mr. Hassler, whose 

 well known talents as a mathematician and an observer give more than 

 promise that this splendid undertaking will equal anything yet execu- 

 ted in the old continent. How singular that a country which has made 

 such gigantic strides in arts and in science, in such a short period^ 

 should not yet have established a National Observatory ! But Con- 

 gress, we learn with much satisfaction, are now about to wipe away 

 this just reproach; and we can also congratulate the scientific world on 

 the steps which our own government is now taking to erect an ob- 

 servatory at Toronto, the capital of Upper Canada. 



Mexico. — The great interest attached to the extraordinary remains 

 discovered in this country have lately elicited two memoirs on the sub' 



