Geographical Collections. 63. 
after, recognize, and visit the numerous islands and reefs of that vast sea, whose 
positions are not well determined, so as to give them a fixed place upon the map, 
Among those who have devoted themselves to this, great and useful scientific en. 
terprise, which will last three years, are several naturalists embarked as volunteers. 
The command is entrusted to three of the most distinguished officers in the Ame. 
rican navy. 
Siruits of Magellan.—Iin a letter from a British officer, attached to the Adven- 
turer and Beagle, British discovery ships, surveying near Cape Horn, in a New 
York paper of the 23d ult. a channel was mentioned as having been discovered, 
passing through Terra del Fuego, commencing at St. Magdelen’s Sound, and 
coming out west of Cape Noir; but it has many communications with the sea 
between that Cape and Christmas Sound.—-Courier, July 18. 
Survey of the Western Coast of Africa..-Accounts have been received from 
Captain Boteler, of his Majesty’s ship Hecla, which we regret to learn are of an 
extremely unfavourable nature, and afford another sad proof of the insalubrity of 
the African climate. That officer had reached Sierra Leone in his survey of the 
coast. ‘Two very fine and promising young officers, Messrs. Chaproniere and 
Bradley, midshipmen of the Hecla, and Doctor Burn, the surgeon of His Majes- 
ty’s ship Eden, had fallen victims to the fever. lieutenant Badgely, the acting 
commander of the Eden, was lying in a dangerous state, and not expected to sur- 
vive; and Lieutenant Tambs, of the Hecla, had been obliged to get the Eden 
under weigh from Sierra Leone, and take her out to sea for the recovery of her 
crew. An English merchant ship, called the Lochiel, was found with the whole 
of her crew lying dead on board, and in that state was towed out of the river Nu- 
nez, near the Bijooga islands, by the boats of a man-of-war engaged in looking 
after slave-vessels.—Lit. Gazetie. 
Scientific Expedition.—His Maiesty’s ship Blossom, commanded by Captain 
Richard Owen, left Woolwich on the 26th August for Spithead, where Captain 
Owen is to receive his final orders. This officer has been directed, by the Admi-e 
ralty, to complete the surveys of the different parts of the West Indies which have 
been left undone by the Spaniards, and the late admiralty surveyor in that quar- 
ter, Mr. De Mayne. Captain Owen, it is understood, will be principally em. 
ployed among the Bahamas, and the coasts between Carthagena and Yucatan, 
more particularly to examine the dangerous shores of the latter place; and to as- 
certain correctly the meridian distances between the principal points in the West 
Indies chronometrically. He has received for this purpose a supply of the very 
finest instruments; and no pains have been spared in the equipment of the Blos- 
som. Captain Owen, we are informed, has been particularly directed to report 
on the qualities of the star quadrant,—a late improvement of the quadrant, in 
which the glasses are considerably enlarged, for the purpose of gaining as much 
light as possible in observing the altitudes of stars with the sea horizon. 
’ It is expected that the Blossom will proceed first to Barbadoes, for the purpose 
of measuring the meridian distance between that island and Madeira. 

ADDENDUM. 
SINCE our analysis of Sir R. Donkin’s Dissertation was put to press, we have 
received ‘* A Leiter to the Publisher of the Quarterly Review, by the Author of 
that Dissertation,” which, written in a tone of irony, is a violent lampeon upon 
Mr. Barrow, arising from a merited castigation inflicted upon the Dissertation 
by the last number of the Quarterly, in which every body knows that Mr. B. 
writes the geographical articles. 
Military influence and presumption are certainly making rapid strides in our 
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