interest. * It would not be difficult to compile from them a far more reliable and complete report of the Amoor country than could be derived from the observations of many non-scientific travellers.

We proceed to specify some of the accounts of the Russian explorations.

1. We mention first a Report of Peschtschuroff, who accompanied Count Putiatin around Cape Horn to Japan and afterward returned by way of Irkootsk to St. Petersburgh. His astronomical determinations of twenty-three points on the River Amoor, between its mouth and its commencement were published two years ago. More recently he has furnished a hydrographic description of the upper portion of the river from UstStrelotschnaja to the mouth of the Sungari, with some general statements in respect to the characteristics of the whole stream and many interesting ethnographical remarks. He refers in this report to a special chart of the Amoor in twelve sheets on a scale of two miles to an English inch (about 1: 146000) which has been constructed from the sketches of Lieut. Popoff. Dr. Petermann publishes what he supposes to be a reduction of this chart, adding however some corrections obviously demanded by Peschtschuroff's data. The observations now making by Lieut. Roskoff may be expected to give still further accuracy to these delineations. The fact is not concealed that there are obstructions to navigation, especially numerous islands.

2. Herr Permikin has reported to the Imp. Geograph. Society of Russia in respect to the Geology and Natural History of the entire stream. Between the Sungari and the mouth of the Amoor, his journal may be considered in its general statements as supplemental to that of Peschtschuroff.

3. Leopold Schrenk's report to the Academy of Sciences gives an outline of his journey down and up the whole course of the Amoor. He has made important collections for scientific purposes. Thirty of his boxes containing specimens in Natural History, were at the date of recent advices on their way to St. Petersburgh. His investigations of the island Sachalen and his examination of the region around the mouth of the stream, and as far up as the Ussuri are particularly extended.

4. Since 1855, the Imperial Geographical Society of Russia has sustained a party of explorers known as the "East Siberian Expedition" under the direction of the astronomer Schwarz. Its

The more important of these articles, extending through four volumes of the Mittheilungen (Gotha, 1855-8), are the following

1856, p. 175. Latest Russian Acquisitions in the Chinese Territory; by Dr. Petermann. p. 472. Peschtschuroff's Surveys on the Amoor; by the same. 1857, p. 296. The Amoor Stream; by the same. p. 518. L. Schrenk's Latest Researches. 1858, p. 70. Maximowitsch's Researches on the Amoor.

original design was to survey in three years Trans Baikal, and the district between the upper Lena and the Wittim. But the investigations having extended on one side to the Amoor and having been impeded on the other, the party was to continue in the field during 1858. Notices of the progress of the expedition by Dr. Schirren have been printed from time to time in the Berlin "Zeitschrift für allgemeine Erdkunde." The May number of that journal contains a brief summary of the labors of each inember of the party during the last three years. Lieut. Roshkoff has been especially charged with the Amoor survey. Radde has been making Natural History investigations in part of its neighborhood.

Roshkoff determined the position of twenty-one places and surveyed the route from Ust-Strelotschnaja to Albasin and from Marien station to Nicolaieff, and the part of the river between his surveys were surveyed by Lieut. Sondhagen.

5. Around the mouth of the Amoor river, and for a considerable distance upon the coast to the North and South, the Russian flotilla has collected much information of importance in navigation. Some of these details are given in the report of the Russian Admirals Sawojka and Putiatin in respect to the naval operations in the straits of Tartary, in 1855, which is published in the official journal of the Ministry of the Marine.

The English cruisers made at the same period soundings and observations, especially around the island of Sachalen, many of which are given in Whitingham's Notes on the late expedition against the Russian Siberia Settlements. (Lond. 1856.)

6. The last investigations to which we call attention are those of Maximowitsch, who has been travelling for the Imperial Botanical Garden of St. Petersburgh. His letters have been published in the bulletin of that establishment, and many of the plants which he collected described by Ruprecht. Maximowitsch travelled part of the time with Schrenk, and part of the time independently.

From this brief indication of the explorations which have lately been made under the patronage or direction of the Russian government, it is evident that we may look for vast accessions at an early day to our knowledge of the Amoor country. All its characteristics have been so little known heretofore, that much has now been unquestionably gained in different departments of natural science. The commercial world will not be long in appropriating the important results of these various investigations.

NEW MAPS OF TROPICAL AMERICA.-The German publishers have recently issued three important maps of different parts of Tropical America based upon recent surveys and authentic travels.

SECOND SERIES, VOL. XXVII, No. 79.-JAN., 1859.

The most complete of these charts is Kiepert's "New Map of Central America," published in four sheets, Berlin, Reimer. It includes the territory between 76° and 79° long. west from Greenwich, and between 6° and 22° N. lat. Although immense districts within these limits are unexplored, this map will be found of very great value, as an accurate presentation of what is known. The scale is 1:2,000,000. Upon it, there are five subordinate maps. 1. The state of San Salvador, and the proposed Honduras Rail Road from the surveys of E. G. Squier and W. H. Jeffers, in 1853. Scale, 1:1,000,000. 2. The isthmus of Tehuantepec as surveyed for a proposed railway, in 1851, by Col. Barnard. Scale 1: 1,000,000. 3. The river San Juan de Nicaragua, from the survey in 1847, published in 1851 by A. von Bulow. Scale 1:500,000. 4. Isthmus and Rail Road of Panama, from the surveys in 1849 by Col. C. W. Hughes. Scale 1: 400,000. Tract of the proposed Inter-oceanic Canal of the river Atrato, from the surveys of W. Kennish in 1854. Scale 1: 400,000.

In reference to the materials used in constructing this map, the following note is given by the compiler.

"The coast lines are copied from the British Admiralty charts, surveyed on the Atlantic side principally by Capt. Owen, on the Pacific side from New Granada westward to Point Herradura in Costarica by Capt. Kellett. The part not yet entirely surveyed by the British Navy, from that point to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec has been retained from the old Spanish charts, with some corrections in the principal bays and harbors, made by British French and American seamen.

"Of the interior no part has hitherto been satisfactorily sur veyed, with the only exception of the measurements executed for the proposed canal and railroad lines and their next environs on the isthmuses of Tehuantepec, Comayagua, Lake Nicaragua and Panama, specified with the names of the authors on the cartons accompanying this map. The other parts of the map on whose accuracy most confidence may be placed are the following: 1, the part of the New Granadian territory east of the 80th degree, reduced from a map compiled with the aid of old Spanish documents, and corrected by some new surveys by Col. Augustino Codazzi, (published in Berlin, 1857); 2, the central or cultivated part of the state of Costarica, taken from a MSS. map by Mr. Alexander von Bülow; 3, the greater part of the states S. Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, copied after the surveys executed in 1851-53 by Messrs. Squier, Jeffers and Hitchcock; 4, the northern part of Yucatan, from a Spanish map, corrected by personal observation and published by Mr. Heller, an Aus

trian naturalist in 1848.

"To the same gentleman we are indebted for the new intelligence produced on the southern part of the state of Tabasco. All available works of other distinguished travellers (viz. Messrs. Thompson in 1825, Dunn 1827, Legh Page 1834, Montgomery 1838, Stephens 1838-39, Dunlop 1844-46, Wagner and Scherzer 1853-54, and others,) have been consulted in order to correct and to complete the other parts of the map, especially the state of Guatemala the rest of the detail being taken with the neces sary precaution in the drawing of the mountains, from the well known but not entirely authentic map of Mr. Baily."

A second chart in two sheets, covering part of the territory included in the map just mentioned, has also been published by Reimer. It is entitled "Carte de l'Isthme de Panama et de Darien, et de la province de Choco." It is based on the surveys of Augustin Codazzi, Colonel in the New Granada corps of Engineers, and is edited by Dr. Kiepert. It is printed on two sheets, on a scale of 1: 800,000. Subordinate maps (corresponding with those above mentioned) of the routes of the Panama Rail Road and the proposed Atrate canal are also given. In the outlines of the coast, Mr. Codazzi has based his chart on the surveys of the English engineer, Mr. Kellet, published in 1854, with the introduction, however, of some changes. Dr. Kiepert, who is conscientiously exact in all his publications, is forced in a note which accompanies this map, to express his doubts as to the reliability of the delineations of the interior of the country.

A third map, recently issued by the same editor and publisher, is entitled "Tropical America North of the Equator," and comprises the West Indies, Central America, Mexico, New Granada, and Venezuela. It is composed with the help of all cartographic and literary materials hitherto published. One of the sheets contains a subordinate map of the central part of the Mexican Republic on an enlarged scale. The entire work is executed with great clearness and precision.

RECENT EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA.-We condense from the Berlin "Zeitschrift für allgemeine Erdkunde" for August, 1858, the following interesting notice of late explorations in South Australia. In the year 1857 two explorations were made under the auspices of the Colonial government into the northern part of the mountainous region which extends from Spencer Gulf north-easterly and nearly to the bottom of the vast curve formed by Lake Torrens. This singular lake, now supposed to consist of immense morasses, salt pools, and shallow expanses of fresh water-so shallow as to be dry during a portion of the year-appears to commence to the northward of Spencer Gulf, (with which it is partially connected by a valley of towards 400 yards in length,) and, extending northerly_three degrees, to sweep N.E., E., S.E., then southerly in 140 E. long. to a point

nearly opposite the place of commencing. The mountain land above alluded to, as enclosed by Lake Torrens, consists of the Flinders range, which runs in a nearly straight and unbroken line or belt from the vicinity of Port Augusta north-easterly to 30° 40′ S. lat., and of the Pound Range, etc., a series of detached peaks or spurs, appearing to branch off in all directions from the northern extremity of the Flinders Range. The main object of these explorations seems to have been to lay open new and desirable grazing lands, and thus to direct intelligently the course of colonization. Accordingly Goyder, who made the first exploration in May and June, especially noted vegetation, followed the course of streams, fixed the position of fresh-water springs or pools, and when he reached the south shore of the bend of Lake Torrens in 29° 13' S. lat. joyfully reports it "as an apparently interminable body of fresh water flowing with a decided current towards the northwest." He describes the north shore, as seen through a telescope, as covered with vegetation, and yet he makes no mention of the depth, real or apparent, of the water. As we shall afterwards see, the government was misled into the conclusion that this portion of the lake was navigable, and that it might be made the highway to unexplored wealth in the heart of the continent. Nor was this the only point in which his report proved an unsafe guide. His glowing pictures of the fertility of large portions of the soil were based partly on near at hand observations during the most favorable period of the year when the streams were full, and partly also on bird's-eye views, from the summits of mountains, of wide reaches of landscape invested with the deceitful colors of the mirage.

Freeling's expedition, undertaken in consequence of Goyder's report, and in the following September, was chiefly directed to the navigation of Lake Torrens from the point where Goyder had observed it "flowing in a northwesterly direction." For this purpose he was provided with a small iron boat. On his arrival at the above named point, Freeling to his surprise found the water to have receded more than half a mile. The soil thus laid bare was "clay, mixed with sand, without stones;" so too the shore for a mile inland, bore the same character, but arid and cracked into fissures by the heat of the sun. From the very slight elevation of the shore, which bore the appearance of sandy flats, as well as from drift-wood and water-marks, it seemed probable that the lake had already receded some six miles, even at the time of Goyder's visit. Freeling was at once convinced that the lake was not navigable, but he resolved not to return until baffled by actual experiment. He accordingly made three successive attempts to reach deep water. On the preliminary trial he waded but a short distance out, sank ankle-deep in mud