May 24, 1858.] 
ASIA. 
297 
of Lieut. N. Michler, in charge of the topographical party sent by 
the United States Government to survey that part of the country. 
Lieut. Michler announces to the Navy Department, that he has 
completed his topographical survey across the Isthmus from the 
Gulf of Darien to the Pacific, along the line for the interoeeanic 
canal proposed by Mr. Kelley. The practicability of the route, says 
Lieut. Michler, can only be determined upon after the necessary 
examination of the results of those labours. 
South America.— On the river Meta, an important tributary of the 
Orinoco, steam vessels have been established by a Yenezuelan com- 
pany, whereby an opening has been made into the very heart of 
the country for the outlet of the products of the interior provinces 
of New Granada. 
A new map of the State of Equador has been completed, after 
many years’ labour and study, by Dr. Villavicencio, a native, who 
proposes carrying it to Paris himself for publication. 
In Chile an exploratory expedition has crossed the Andes into the 
Indian territory south of Valdivia, to examine the lake of Nahuel- 
huapi, the site of an old settlement of the Jesuits, supposed to be 
the source of the great Eio Negro, which crosses the continent, and 
falls into the South Atlantic in latitude 41 ° ; the details of which 
are promised to be sent to us. 
The long pending dispute between Brazil and Paraguay relative 
to the opening of the upper waters of the river Paraguay has been 
recently settled by an amicable arrangement throwing open the 
navigation, in virtue of which the products of the rich province of 
Matto Grosso may now for the first time be exported by water- 
carriage, and we may look perhaps for some new data regarding 
a vast region very little known to Europeans.* 
ASIA. 
Syria . — Pushing onward to the east and south in the Pashalik of 
Damascus, beyond the explorations of Seetzen, Burckhardt, Lindsay, 
Porter, and all previous travellers, Mr. Cyril Graham has, through 
the good will of that singular people the Druses, contrived to visit 
the very remarkable tracts to the east and south of the Hauran, 
* The reader who may wish to obtain more knowledge on the subject of the 
various parts of America than I here allude to must also consult the works thereon 
by German authors. — See ante, p. 285. 
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