The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-28 00:00:00

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.

LONDON, Feb. 28.—Wind this day at noon, South..
Easterly; strong breeze and fine weather, but rather
cloudy.

FALMOUTH, Feb. 27.—Wind E.—Sailed—Excelsior, for
Newport.

LOWESTOFT, Feb. 26.—Arrived—Union Canal (of Ply-
mouth), assisted in leaky. Sailed—Margaret Martin, for
Mogadore.

HOLYHEAD, Feb. 27.—Wind S.E.—Sailed—Eltore, for
Riu Janeiro.

DARTMOVTH, Feb. 27.—Wind S.E.—Arrived---Two
Brothers, from Harbour Grace.

PORTSMOUTH, Feb. 27.—Wind S.W.—Sailed—Windsor,
for New York.

(By Telegraph.)
GRAVESEND, Wednesday Morning

Arrived, Feb. 28.—Tuen Celene and Aliwall, from
Guernsey; Conder, steamer, from Bremen ; Ranger
steamer, from Rotterdam; Medusa, steamer, from Dantsic ;
Zebra, steamer, from Antwerp ; Paul Frederick, from
Wismar.

Sailed, Feb. 27. —Sara, steamer, for Dieppe.
Sailed, Feb. 28.—Souvenir, steamer, for Oaen ; Seine
and Tamise, steamer, fur Paris; Mary, steamer, for Got-
tenburg.

DEAL, T hursday Morning.

Passed, Feb. 27.—Areta, for Cardiff; Edmund A. .Cou.-
dors, for Phildelphia ; Dorothy, for Demerara—all from
London ; Livonia, of Jersey, from the west, for the north.

Royal Geographical Society.

At the meeting of this society on the 25th inst.,
Sir R. I. Murchison in the chair, Mr. W. Chandless,
M.A., gave an account of his second exploration of
the Purus river, one of the great affluents of the
Amazons. He was incited to the exploration of the
stream by the importance attached to it by the
people of Southern Peru and Brazil, as well as by
European geographers, who supposed it would form
an uninterrupted water communication between the
rich provinces of Southern Peru and the Atlantic,
via the Amazons. All previous attempts to ascend
had been frustrated, not by difficulties in its naviga-
tion, but by lack of perseverance and enterprise. In
1864 Mr. Chandless engaged a small native canoe and
a crew of Indians, and ascended the river nearly to its
sources (1,866 miles), finding a good depth of water
and no obstacles to navigation for the greater part of
the way. It is peopled only by a few tribes of Indians,
each speaking a distinct language. The banks are
formed of alluvial soil, and are covered throughout
with dense forest, rich in indiarubber trees and other
vegetable products of commercial value. The stream,
however, was found not to lead to the settled dis-
tricts of southern Peru, as had been supposed. The
Indians met with near the sources had never had
communication with white men or civilised tribes,
and were ignorant of the use of iron. In 1865 Mr.
Chandless undertook a second journey, with the
view of ascending the Aquiry, the most important
southern affluent of the Purus, which he thought
might possibly be the navigable river known as the
Madre di Dios, flowing from the Andes, east of
Cusco. He ascended this stream also nearly to its
source, finding it to terminate, like the main river,
in the midst of trackless forests. He then attempted
to cross by land, and hewed a way through the
forest for nine days, but was obliged finally to aban-
don the attempt. Both the Purus and the Aquiry
were carefully mapped during both journeys, and
Mr, Chandless was so determined to lose no oppor-
tunity of fixing his positions by astronomical obser-
vation that on one occasion, when surprised by a
rising of the water flooding the sandbanks, the only
places on which he could find a tract of open ground,
he set off down stream with all the speed the pad-
dlers could master in order to beat the stream and
reach a place where the banks were yet uncovered.
At the conclusion of the paper the president com-
mended in high terms the courage and ability of
Mr. Chandless, who, as a private English gentle-
man, had accomplished what a powerful Govern-
ment had failed in, and reminded the meeting that
the society had decreed him one of the Royal medals
for the former of these journeys. A second paper
was read " On the rivers of Caravaza, in Southern
Peru," by Don Antonio Raimoudy, honorary cor-
responding member, who had in 1864 explored seve-
ral. of the streams formerly supposed to be the head
waters of the Purus, but which were now decided to
flow into the Beni and Madeira. In the discussion
which folloWed Mr. C. R. Markham, Mr. Bates, and
Mr. Wallace gave the 'meeting further interesting
details concerning the rivers of the Amazons system,
which they had themselves visited ; Mr. Bollaert,
Dr. Mann, and Mr. J. Crawfurd took part in the
discussion. The following new fellows were elected :
—Lord Seaton, Mr. T. NV. Forsyth, C. 8., Mr. E.
Thornton, C. 8., Dr. D. Brandis, Dr. Jones Lam-
prey, and Mr. H. L. Bischoffsheiw.