The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-21 00:00:00

ISTHMUS OF DARIEN SHIP CANAL.

(Translation from the French.)
TO DR. EDWARD CULLEN, STRAND, LONDON.

Sin,—l am very much to blame for having so long de-
layed an answer to the agreeable and interesting dispatch
that you have been kind enough to forward me by the
hands of Mr. Augustus Peterman, so estimable by his
character, as well as by the solidity of his geographical
labours. Dr. Cullen cannot doubt the high importance
that I would attach to the merit of his courageous and
useful investigations in the eastern part of the Isthmus
of Panama ' • knowing my position and my antediluvian
age, he will receive with indulgence, even so late, the
expression of my lively gratitude.
After having laboured in vain during half a century
to prove the possibility of an Oceanic Canal, and to
point out the Gulf of San Miguel and Cupica as the
points most worthy of attention—after having regretted,
almost with bitterness, in the last edition of my " Aspects
of Nature," that the employment of the means, which
the present state of our knowledge affords, for obtaining
precise measurements has been so long delayed—l ought,
more than any one else, to be satisfied to see at last my
hopes for so noble an enterprise revived. By your publi-
cations, sir, and by that of Mr. Gisborne, will be origi-
nated the great work of changing an important part of
the commerce of nations, and of rendering more acces-
sible the rich countries of Eastern Asia and the Indian
Archipelago. The undertaking is by no means above
the intellectual and material power which civilised na-
tions have attained to. The work should be one to last
:or ever ; it should not commence with a canal with
locks, like the magnificent Caledonian Canal ; it must
be a really Oceanic Canal, without locks ; a free passage
from sea to sea, across which the speed of the navigation
will be modified, but not interrupted, by the difference
in height and non-coincidence of the tides.
Receive, I pray you, Sir, the expression of my highest
consideration.—Yours, &c., &c.,

(Signed) ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT.
Potsdam, 4th June, 1853.

DEATH OF THE DANISH MINISTER.—We have to an-
nounce the sudden death of his Excellency M. de Bille,
Danish minister at this court. His Excellency expired
at two o'clock on Saturday morning, at the residence of
the Danish legation, from disease of the heart. The
deceased was much respected by the diplomatic corps.
Madame de Bille has suffered greatly from the shock,
and remains in a very precarious condition. His Excel-
lency attended the Queen's Drawing•room on Tuesday,
and was out as usual on the day preceding his death.
It is not a little remarkable that the late Danish minister
at the Court of St. James's, Count Reventlow, died from
a similar disease about two years since while on a tour
in Scotland. .

UNITED STATES' EXPEDITION TO AFRICA.—A New
York paper gives the • following account of an expedi-
tion to Africa by Colonel Lynch :—" Commander
Lynch, recently returned from his preliminary expedi-
-tion of observation, preparatory to his grand
oxploring
expedition into the interior of Africa, is now in
Washington, engaged in preparing his report. He
was on the coast in Liberia and that vicinity from
early in January to late in March, and explored all
the rivers of the region. He found none navigable
more than 21 miles above the mouth. He is pos-
sessed of no very exalted idea of the feasibility of white
colonisation of the west coast of Africa, even in a tem-
porary way, and for commercial purposes only. Cap-
tain Lynch intimates that there is but a single English-
man known to have survived the climate of Sierra Leone
for five years, at the end of which time the fever carried
him off. It will be recollected that, perhaps 40 years
since, the Portuguese colonised an island in theimme-
diate vicinity of Guinea, sending there 7,000 souls. At
this time there is but a single individual living in whose
veins the blood of any of these colonists is believed to
exist. This is a fact making stubbornly indeed against
the idea of a much more profitable trade with Africa, as
the result of any possible effort of our Government to
compass that end. The books, papers, &c., of Com-
mander Lynch have just arrived in this country. Their
delay in following him has embarrassed his operations
and preparations here not a little."
THE SOUTH WALES FISHERIES NEW MARKET.—The
opening of the South Wales line as far as Swansea has,
similar to the establishment of the Chester and Holyhead
line, opened new fields and markets for the disposal of
the immense quantities of the finny tribe caught on the
shores of Southern Wales. Hitherto these large supplied
of food have been only partially resorted to, and locally
consumed, a small quantity only being transported from
the place of capture, but now that rail communication has
been opened, the inexhaustible and lucrative supply offood
is likely to afford employment and subsistence to large
numbers of the poorer class, as vast quantities of the
various kinds of fish are now regularly sent by means of
the rail to the various towns, and thence taken inland.
Large quantities of mackerel have thus been sent, per.
Gloucester, to London, Birmingham, Derby, Notting-
ham, and other largeinland towns. In Carmarthen
and Swansea bays of delicious fish abound, and on the
extensive sands the finest shell fish are taken in abun-
dance. Regular employment is thus afforded to many
poor persons.
THE SWEATING SICKNESS.—AII epidemic disease, said
to be the sweating sickness, has recently broken out at
Mehun-sur-Yevre (Cher), which has been fatal to severa
persons. It more particularly attacks young people.