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who has passed many years in the exploration of Mexico, and the investigation of the habits, manners, and religion of the Indian tribes, found there by the Spanish invaders, published near the close of 1861 a remarkable work, entitled Popol Vuh, which he declares to contain the sacred book of the Quichés translated from the hieroglyphic language, and also the legends of the settlement of Mexico by that tribe and their heroic annals, and a few months later followed it with a grammar and dictionary of the Quiché language. During the past year M. Ferdinand Denis has furnished to the Revue Orientale et Americaine, a Mexican paleograph bearing upon the same subject. Dr. Poyet, well known by his Turkish explorations, has been for the past two years exploring Southeastern Mexico, and has sent home some interesting maps and descriptions of his discoveries in the State of Vera Cruz.

M. Garcia y Cubas has published within the past year a large atlas of the Mexican Republic, and M. Francis Lavallée has issued a work on the natural and political history, productions, &c., of that country.

In Central America the surveys and explorations connected with the proposed opening of new routes to the Pacific have brought to light many interesting facts. The United States Government have purchased a considerable tract of land at Chiriqui in Costa Rica, and proposed to send out a colony of free men of color there, but the protest of the Costa Rican Government led to a delay and finally to the abandonment of the project. In the little town of Vertud in the department of Gracias, Honduras, a grotto has recently been discovered, in the upper part of which is a fountain called fuente de sangre (fountain of blood), the liquid thrown up by which resembles in color, smell, and taste the blood of mammals. From the fountain it flows through the lower part of the grotto, depositing in its progress some apparent coagula, and discharges itself into the waters of a neighboring creek, which it reddens. Vultures, buzzards, and dogs seek for it greedily, especially when it is coagulated, and fatten from partaking of it. Considerable quantities of it have been taken away in bottles for analysis, but it decomposes very rapidly, and almost always bursts the bottles which contain it. Prof. Silliman has made an analysis of it and finds it very rich in organic matters, and regards its sensible properties as probably due to the presence in it of large quantities of colored infusoria.

Honduras has established Amapula on the island of Tigré as its principal port on the Pacific. A German geographer, M. Max of Sonnenstern, has issued the past year a very complete map of Central America, the result of recent explorations, and Dr. Frantz has published a narrative of his visits to the volcanoes of Costa Rica.

In South America, there have been as usual many political changes and revolutions, and though perhaps less actual geographical explo

rations than usual, the results of previous explorations have been published to a greater extent than at any former period.

In New Grenada, or as that republic now styles itself, the Confederation of the United States of Colombia, a French expedition under the direction of M. Boudiol is engaged in exploring the isthmus of Darien, in order to determine definitively the practicability of an interoceanic canal. Señor Samper, a distinguished scholar and a native of New Grenada, has published in the Spanish language during the past year a complete history, geographical, ethnological, and political of the Confederation, and has also communicated to the scientific journals of France several interesting papers concerning the physical features and races of New Grenada. Maurice Wagner, a German geographer, has issued a very complete map of the isthmus of Panama, and has accompanied it by a full letter-press description of the physical geography of the isthmus, and Mr. William Bollärt has published a work on the antiquities and ethnology of New Grenada. The Confederation has, by a decree, taken possession of the two islands St. Andrew and Providence, situated opposite the coast of Mosquitia, and which are very rich in guano.

Venezuela has been in a condition of civil war during the whole of the past year, and has had little opportunity for geographical explorations, but a very elaborate paper on its geology, prepared by M. Wall, has appeared in the Zeitschrift der Erdkunde; and Don Ramon Paez, son of the present President of that republic, has published at the commencement of the present year (1863), an interesting work entitled, "Wild Scenes in South America, or Life in the Llangs of Venezuela," which is a valuable contribution to the natural history and geography of the country. M. Cortambert, a French geographer, has compiled an elaborate work, from the notes of Dr. Plassard, on the productions and people of the Orinoco basin, and among others upon the geophagi or eartheaters of that country.

In Ecuador, an American engineer, named James Wilson, has made a journey of exploration from the shores of the province of Esmeraldas to Quito, with a view to ascertain the practicability of constructing a railroad to connect Esmeraldas and Quito.

It has been known for many years past that the Jivaros, a tribe of Indians occupying the eastern part of the Republic of Ecuador, worshipped the heads of the prisoners whom they had taken in battle and decapitated; and it was said by travellers that they had some process by which they reduced these heads to a very small size. Many attempts have been made to obtain some of these idol heads for the ethnological collections of Europe or America; but such was the reverence in which they were held by the Jivaros, that until 1861 it was impossible to obtain a single specimen. In June, 1861, Prof. Cassola brought one to Lon

don, which had been stolen from a temple on the river Pastaza. A second was obtained by a baptized Indian from a Jivaro who had much ill luck, by the representation that the idol head was tired of its imprisonment, and unless permitted to travel would continue to persecute him. Since that time ten of these heads have been sent to the United States, and two of them are in the possession of Dr. Merritt of New York. M. Bollärt, who has spent much time in Ecuador, thus describes the consecration of these heads as idols: The bones of the head are removed through the base, a heated stone introduced, and this process repeated until complete desiccation takes place, and the head (on which the long hair is retained) is reduced to about one fourth its original size; the appearance of the features being maintained, and the desiccation having been so uniform that there is no appearance of wrinkling in the skin. This accomplished, a feast takes place, in which the victor roundly abuses the head, which is made to reply in terms of defiance, an Indian priest acting as spokesman for it. Upon this the victor raises his lance, strikes and wounds the face of his enemy, and then sews up the mouth, condemning it to silence except as an oracle; and it is only consulted when the inquirer is under the influence of a narcotic (generally the coca). A double string is attached to the top of the head that it may be worn round the neck, and from the closed lips twenty or thirty cords a foot or more in length depend, the use of which is uncertain. If repeatedly disappointed in the results of their supplications to the idol head, the Jivaro women cut off its hair and throw it into the woods.

The governors of French and Dutch Guiana have sent out a joint scientific commissison to explore the upper regions drained by the Maroni river, which separates these two colonies, and their report will probably be published during the present year.

Brazil has within the last two or three years been very fully explored; and during the past year many of the results of the labors of the geographers and naturalists who have penetrated into the interior of the empire have been given to the public. A journal of physical science, the Revista Trimensal, is published at Rio Janeiro, and each number contains important geographical papers. A German savant has published, during the past year, the results of his explorations under the title Brasilianische Zustande und Aussichten; M. Biard, a French painter and naturalist, has described the scenery of the country in his Deux Ans au Bresil; M. Schultz, a German geographer, has described the Sao Francisco basin in the Zeitschrift der Erdkunde, and Dr. H. Kiepert has illustrated it with an excellent map. Doctor Moore, a citizen of Brazil, and a geographer of high reputation, has, in connection with the eminent French geographer Malte Brun, published a geography of the Brazilian empire in the Portuguese language, and has described in the bulletin of the

French Geographical Society his explorations in the Paraguay basin. The region lying in the vicinity of the yet undetermined boundary between Brazil and French Guiana has been very fully described by the Chevalier J. C. de Silva, in a work in two volumes entitled Oyapoc. Of the interesting narrative of explorations of the brothers Grandidier in South America in 1857-'9, published the past year by M. Ernest Grandidier, the larger part is devoted to Brazil. Lieutenant Ashe, an English officer, has given in the Nautical Magazine an account of his journey across the Brazilian Andes.

Dr. Burmeister published early the last year the narrative of his travels in the Argentine Confederation from 1857 to 1860, and M. Martin de Moussy, who is still occupied in the exploration of these States, has already given to the public two volumes of his journeyings. Dr. Demersay, a Paraguayan scholar, has in progress of publication an elaborate physical, economical, and political history of Paraguay. Gen. Reyes has published within the past year a treatise on the geography and history of Uru guay. The Argentine Confederation, aside from its chronic condition of war with the State of Buenos Ayres, which during the past year has been terminated once more by a peace, has suf fered from severe earthquakes, though none have been so terribly destructive as that which in 1861 made the flourishing city of Mendoza a heap of ruins. At Catamarca, in the northern portion of the Argentine Confederacy, a rich and extensive lode of silver has been discovered.

In Chili, M. Pissis, the eminent Chilian geologist and astronomer, is still at the head of the geodesic and geologic survey of the country which is in progress. M. Baldomero Menendez has published, the past year, a statistical and geographical manual of the Chilian Republic, and M. Philippi has continued his observations on the Chilian Andes, describing in a recent paper the formation of a new volcano near Chillan in 1861. In the southern portion of Chili, occupied by the independent and brave Araucanos, an Indian tribe famous in history, a Frenchman named Orelie Antoine de Tounens, who had resided for many years among the Araucanos, and who, as an educated man and a graduate of the Polytechnic School of Paris, had acquired a powerful influence among them, persuaded them on the 17th of November, 1860, to recognize him as their king, under the title of Orelie Antoine I, and to make the throne hereditary in his family. The Chilian Government were greatly displeased at this movement, especially as they had been for some time purposing to press the Araucanos farther south, and had even taken possession of some territory S. of the Biobio river, which had hitherto been their boundary. The new king determined to regain the lost territory and advanced with a considerable force toward the Biobio, but, while yet some miles distant from it and within his own acknowledged territory, was surprised on the 4th of January, 1862, with

his staff, by a large Chilian force, who had been guided to his encampment by a treacherous Indian, and, having been seized and disarmed by the Chilians, was committed to the prison at Nacimiento, where at the latest intelligence he was still incarcerated.

M. Guinnard, a French traveller, who passed three years in captivity among the Poyuches, a Patagonian tribe, has given, in the Tour du Monde, an interesting description of the geography, productions, ethnology, &c., of Patagonia, and a vivid narrative of his perils and sufferings in making his escape to one of the Chilian ports. The French have taken possession of the island of Tova on the E. coast of Patagonia, which has extensive deposits of guano.

On the western side of South America, M. Paul de Marcoy, a French astronomer, has published an interesting volume of travels in the Peruvian Andes, and the indefatigable explorer Von Tschudi is still pursuing his investigations in the same region.

In the West Indies, Messrs. F. Lavallée and F. Pastrana have published in the bulletin of the French Geographical Society, a historical and geographical sketch of the island of Porto Rico, with a fine map. M. Wall has made a geological exploration of Trinity Island, and Señor J. de Sivers has given to the world a treatise on the geography of Cuba. A new map of Hayti, much more complete than any which have preceded it, was published at Paris by the Haytien Government near the close of 1861. The Dominican Government was formally annexed to Spain in 1861.

Crossing the Atlantic, we find a few items of geographical interest in Europe. The trigonometrical survey of Great Britain and Ireland, begun in 1783, has during the past year been completed, and its results have been published in 7 quarto volumes. This survey has been connected by several triangulations with those of France and Belgium, which in their turn are connected with those of Holland, Denmark, Germany, Prussia, and Russia, and will furnish the means of measuring an arc of parallel of 75°. A cadastral survey of Ireland, Scotland, and England is also in progress, and a map of Ireland in 205 sheets, on the scale of one inch to a mile has been published, and those of Scotland and Ireland, on the same scale, are in the course of publication.

Sir Henry James has commenced the publication of a series of maps of the whole world on the scale of two inches to the mile, the intention being to have the sheets uniform in scale, so that any number of them could be united to give the map of a country or a continent without the need of adaptation, which has hitherto been a great difficulty with geographers. Six sheets have been issued, and an effort is making to enlist the geographers of other countries in the enterprise, so as to make the maps the best possible representations of all portions of the earth's surface.

The topographical survey of Spain has been prosecuted with great vigor during the past year, and the central provinces have been accurately mapped, and the entire triangulation of the first order completed.

M. Adrien Block has published a volume of the statistics of the different states of Europe, with an Atlas, a very complete and valuable work. M. Rudolph has completed a very elaborate gazetteer, geographical, topographical, and statistical, of all the towns in Germany. Two valuable geographical works on Italy have also been published during the year: Le Royaume d'Italie, etudié sur les lieux mêmes, by P. de Tchihatchev, and L'Italia meridionale, o l'antico Ream delle Due Sicilie, by J. de Luca. Turkey in Europe has been very thoroughly explored, especially its northern and eastern provinces, and Servia and Montenegro have been fully described by Boué, by M. Henri Thiers, and by Messrs. Lestak and Scherb, and Eastern Bulgaria by Dr. Allard.

In Asia, Syria, Palestine, Damascus, and the Haüran have been very thoroughly explored during the past three or four years. The works of Graham, Porter, and others had already made us familiar with the two latter, and no oriental tour was complete without a visit to the former; but during the French occupation of Syria several commissions were sent out by the French Government to explore the ancient ruins and relics of Phenician, Philistine, Edomite, Macedonian, and Roman rule in these regions, and their investigations have brought to light much that is interesting. The report of the Pheni. cian commission was drawn up by M. Ernest Renan, one of the most eminent of French oriental scholars, and brought to light many new. facts in regard to the archæology and ancient geography of Sidon, Tyre, and other cities of ancient Phenicia. M. Poulain de Bossay, who has also explored the ancient site of Tyre within the last two years, has published an essay on the topography of Tyre, in which he controverts some of M. Renan's positions.

M. G. de Perrot, who was intrusted with the direction of the commission for exploring the archæology of Asia Minor, discovered in the ancient Galatia many remarkable antiquities; among others, at Ancyra, the remarkable epigraphic monument known as the "Will of Augustus;" but though it has been asserted and generally admitted that the Galatians were a Celtic race and the original stock from which the Galli or Gauls of France sprung, the explorers could find no trace of Celtic or Druidic monuments in that mountainous region. Several of the French officers of the army of occupation explored very thoroughly the region of the Libanus, or Lebanon range of mountains; and MM. Emmerich de Rey and Aucapitaine penetrated into the Hauran, the ancient seat of the great races of Canaan, and have published interesting monographs in reference to that hitherto little known region. M. Pierrotti, who has devoted many years to the investiga

tion, has published recently a very elaborate plan of ancient Jerusalem, in which he has fixed the location of every point mentioned by sacred or profane writers.

Dr. Blau gives, in the Zeitschrift der Erdkunde, a narrative of a journey across the Pontic Alps from Erzeroum to Mourad-tchai, a region hitherto seldom traversed by Europeans; and the same journal contains the account of the remarkable explorations of MM. Wetstein and R. Doergens in the interior of Syria. Remarkable physical changes have taken place in the Asiatic Turkish empire during the year past. Mecca has been nearly destroyed by inundations, and the Euphrates has changed its course: quitting its bed near Hilleh, it has taken a more westerly course, and now loses itself in the marshes which extend toward the Persian Gulf. In Northern and Central Asia the Russians have been the most active and enterprising of explorers, and their savans have led the way for the progress of the Russian flag over vast regions, which for centuries had been the pasture grounds of nomadic tribes, or the homes of fierce and intractable Turkish, Tartar, and Toungousian tribes.

In the Aderbeijan region in Persia, M. Khanikoff, a Russian geographer, has made, in 1861 and 1862, extensive explorations. The Aderbeijan is a lofty plateau in the N. W. of Persia, lying between the Caspian Sea and Mesopotamia. It is shut in on all sides by mountains; on the east, the Talish range separates it from the basin of the Caspian; on the west, the chain of Kandilar forms a barrier between it and the plain of Mesopotamia; on the north, and through the central portion of it, spurs from the Kandilar chain stretch toward the Caspian; and at the south, the Buzgush mountains join Mount Sehend, 11,392 feet high, to the Kandilar range. The plateau at its lowest point, the shores of the salt lake Urmia or Ooroomiah, is 4,062 feet above the sea level, and rises in the lofty peak of Ararat to about 17,500 feet. Mount Savalan, another of its summits, is 15,444 feet high. This region is of special interest to us as having been for many years the seat of an important mission, that to the Nestorians, who, to the number of about 150,000, are settled in villages around the lake Ooroomiah. Professor Ronge, who accompanied a former expedition of M. Khanikoff to Khorassan, has published since his return the flora of Khorassan. The Count Constantin de Sabir has published, within the past year, a very good résumé of the recent discoveries in the basin of the Amoor, especially those of M. Maack, a Russian explorer, and has described the physiognomy and habits of the numerous tribes inhabiting the region, the Manegres, Ghiliaks, &c. The same eminent geographer has also sketched the recent explorations of Russia in Central Asia, principally in the country of the Seven Rivers and the Transsilian region. He has found there the ancient Soungaria or Dzoungaria, which, in the middle of the last century, submitted to

China, and ceased to maintain a distinct politi cal existence; it is now divided into two parts, Chinese Soungaria, and Russian Soungaria, or the province of Semi-palatinsk, comprising the districts of Ala-tau, Kopal, and Ayagouz Among the recent Russian explorers who have visited this region are M. de Semenoff, who has crossed the chains of the Ala-tau or Alatag, and the Thian-Shan mountains, and passed through the valleys lying between these ranges, and who has prepared a valuable map of the orographic and hydrographic features of this region; the Sultan Valikhanoff, a Kirghiz prince, a descendant of Genghis Khan, who has explored the slopes of the Thian-Shan, and who first ascertained the circumstance of the death of Adolphe Schlagentweit. Captain Golobeff, whose return we noticed in the "Annual Cyclopædia" of last year, and M. Veniukoff, have explored and mapped the famous lake Issi-Kol or Warm Lake, which bears also the name of Touz-Kol or Salt Lake, and its shores, and have also added materially to our knowledge of the hydrographic systems of this portion of Central Asia. M. Zakharoff, the Russian consul at Kouldja, has also published a map of this region compiled from Chinese data.

M. Kullwein, a Russian savant, who accom panied Gen. Ignatieff in his last mission to Khiva and Bokhara, has recently published a narrative of his voyage, and has given some important information concerning the AmooDaria and Khiva rivers.

M. Gustave Radde has explored the region north of Mongolia, the country of the Khalkhas, and ascended the mountain Monkoo-Sardik, toward the northern shore of the lake KossoKol or Kosso-Gol; and since his return has published an interesting map of this region lying between the lake Kosso-Kol and the island of Saghalien.

M. de Romanoff has published an account of the recent Russian explorations on the coasts of Japan and Mantchooria, and has described and laid down upon a map the course of the Lower Amoor, and the new Russo-Chinese frontier, established by the treaty of November 14, 1860. M. Schwarz, the astronomer of the scientific expedition sent out by the Russian Geographical Society, has published a sevensheet map of Eastern Siberia.

During the past year, M. Schmidt, assisted by MM. Brylkine and Glenn, has been engaged in surveying and exploring the island of Saghalien; and Captain Gamoff has been making astronomical observations between the sea of Japan and the river Ossoori.

One of the results of the Anglo-French expedition to China, and the treaty of Tien-tsin, has been a very great number of exploring expeditions into the interior of China, hitherto so resolutely closed against European intrusion. Among those who have made public the results of their tours of exploration d'Escayrac, M. E. Desbuissons, and M. Chassirons, among the French writers; and Captain

are the Count

Blakiston and Commander Brine among the English officers. These journeys of exploration were continued by English officers and civilians, and probably by the French also, throughout the whole of 1861 and 1862, and many of the narratives of the explorers are yet to be published. Captain Blakiston's "Five Months on the Yang-tsze" is an exceedingly valuable contribution to geographical science. In company with three friends, Lieut.-Col. H. A. Sarel, Dr. Alfred Barton, and Rev. S. Schereschewsky, an American missionary, he ascended the Yang-tsze river to a point 1,800 miles from its mouth, and over one thousand miles higher than any European traveller had previously penetrated, reaching the confines of Tibet. The course and depth of the river, the character of the inhabitants along its banks, the productions, scenery, and temperature, were carefully noted, and the adventures of the expedition, which was one of uncommon peril, are most charmingly described. Commander Brine's narrative is also one of deep interest, though of somewhat graver character. He has given the most clear and complete account of the origin, history, and character of the Tae-ping rebellion, and of the region in which it maintains its authority, which we have seen; he distinguishes between it and the other insurrections, three or four in number, now desolating other portions of that wretched empire, and throws a flood of light on the Chinese character and customs. During the year 1861-2, six other companies of English explorers traversed China in different directions: Mr. Morrison and Superintendent Harcourt, in January, 1861, set out from Tien-tsin and travelled over land to Che-foo in the N. of China, going in all 700 miles through regions hitherto unexplored, and for nearly three hundred miles of their course passed along the banks of the Grand Canal.

In July, 1861, two English gentlemen, starting from Tien-tsin, penetrated to Mantchoo Tartary by an overland route, and visited Moukden, the capital of that country. They found that the Chinese, though nominally the conquered race, were really the conquerors, having most of the business of the country in their hands, and having imposed upon the Mantchoos, not only their habits and customs, but their language.

In November, 1861, Messrs. Richards and Slosson, also starting from Tien-tsin, undertook an expedition through Pe-chee-le and Shan-le, the two northern provinces of China, and made a tour of 1,560 miles, crossing the Great Wall, which they represent as greatly out of repair, four times.

In the centre of China, four gentlemen, Messrs. Dickson, Sherburn, Beach, and Bonney, passed, in April, 1862, from Canton to Hankow, a distance of 756 miles, and in their route explored the great Tung-ting lake and the course of the Seang river.

During the spring, Mr. Baker ascended the

Tsien-tang river, in Che-kiang, and visited the celebrated green-tea districts of Nganhwuy. In the south of China, Rev. Dr. Legge ascended the East river, in the Kwang-tung province, in April, 1861, for a distance of 300 miles, and Rev. Mr. Irwin and his companions ascended the West river, in the same province, to a higher point than had been previously reached.

The Island of Formosa, hitherto sealed from European exploration, is now open; and a party of explorers have been traversing it during the past year.

The French conquests in the Empire of Anam (see CoCHIN CHINA), have led to extensive geographical explorations in that empire; the Me-kong, or Cambodia, the Oudong, the Dongnai, and the Saigon rivers have been ascended for a distance of several hundred miles, and the populous cities on their banks explored. Panomping, at the junction of the Me-kong and Oudong, represented as one of the largest cities of Cambodia, was visited by one of the French ships of war. The principal islands on the coast, some of them large, and containing fine harbors, have been taken possession of by the French. Two English travellers, Messrs. King and Forrest, have explored the western portion of Cambodia, and made the circuit of the large and important Lake Tale-Sab, not hitherto found on most of the maps, on the banks and in the neighborhood of which they discovered extensive and remarkable ruins of two ancient cities, called by the natives Naken-Ouat and Nakon-Hluang.

Sir Robert Schomburgk, English consul at Bangkok, Siam, whose ascent of the Mei-nam river we mentioned in the "Annual Cyclopædia" of 1861, has contributed to Petermann's "Mittheilungen" a very full description of the course of the Mei-nam and of the productions of the regions through which it flows.

Rev. Francis Mason, D.D., an American missionary, of Toungoo, Burmah, to whom geographical and ethnographical science are already indebted for many important contributions respecting that country, has recently published, in the " Missionary Magazine," an account of a tour he has made in the interior of Burmah, where he has discovered two new tribes, of whom nothing except the names, and hardly these, had previously been known-the Paloungs and the Kakhyens. The former are a very intelligent race, evidently Mongolian in origin, Buddhist in religion, and, though tributary to the Burmese, yet maintaining a separate government. They are industrious, and their land is under good cultivation. They produce tea in large quantities, and export it to Burmah, Siam, and even to some of the Chinese provinces. Their language is peculiar, and bears no resemblance to that of the Burmese. Kakhyens seem to be a branch of the Karen family, a simple-hearted race, who have no sympathy with the religion or language of the Paloungs, to whom they are subject. Some of

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