Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1857-07-18
M | s G E L L A N Y.
GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERIES.

GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERIES.
We live at an epoch full of splendid discov-
cry No period in history, equally brief-one
at the close OF the fifteenth century, when Co
lumbus found the Western world, and De Ga
ma the way to the Eastern, alone excepted
has yielded so brilliant harvest of reliable ge-
ographical knowledge as the six years closing
with 1855 The period covers Investigations
of Barth, Vogel, and De Lauture, in Middle
Africa; of Oswell, Livingstone, and Anderson,
in the South of Lieutenant Burton, in the
East 1t covers the highly interesting but Gu
riosity-provoking excursions of Herndon and
Page up the Maranon and Parana into the heart
OF South America. II covers the explorations
of Mcclure, Collinson, Rae, and Kane, within
the Polar circle. 1t unfolds an index of cour-
age, labor, and patience well rewarded, that
might stimulate the most ndoent in civilized
life into the spirit of adventure The index is
that of bulky volume, containing stores OF
facts precious TO science, with very little that
is not tributary to some department of knowl-
edge. But foremost and chief as the leading
discoveries of the time, and the crown and COIN
plement of all preceding research, rank these
three:
L. The discovery, in lS49, by Captain Os-
well and DR.. Livingstone, of the great Lake
Ngami, in Southern Africa, thus partially con-
frming Greek and African tradition, and the
conjectures of geologists, that the unknown des-
erts of that continent beneath the Lunar range
are diversified with expanded sheets of water.
and possibly an inland sea.
2. The discovery, in 1850, by Captain
Mcclure, of Northwest passage to China,
three hundred years after Sir Hugh Wilough-
by first attempted TO find it, and after three hun
dred years of gallant endeavor and matchless
suffering in the pursuit
8. The discovery, in 1855, by DR.. Kane, OF
an iceless circumpoar sea, the existence OF
which had been pre-supposed by science.
The latter two achievements leave only sec
ond-rate honors to subsequent maritime expor-
alton. Not but that there is world of work
10 be done; not but that there are as valuable
facts in the sea as ever came out of it. But
the main glory of adventure consists in pioneer
ing the way, which, once indicated, they who
follow are but instruments in the hands of the
true discoverer. Is not the discovery of the
planet Neptune credited to lie Verrier, who
demonstrated its place in the concave, rather
than to the star-gazer who, guided by his data,
found it! So will the glory of finding the
Northwest Passage belong primarily to M Clure
who, from the heights of Barring Island, saw
seventy nautical miles away, across impossible
ice, points which Parry had reached from the
opposite side; and like the Spaniard, who "si-
lent upon peak in Darieh," first saw the Pa.
cific, looked down Barrow Strait homeward
Yet no little fame will be his who, working his
way through intervening ice, effects, not mere
ly demonstrates the passage. So likewise the
honor of proving an open polar sea belongs to
DR.. Kane; while large resdum Of credit is
reserved for the sailor who shall attain and nav.
igaie those unvisted waters. Nor is the field
of unfinished labor at the North confined to
these two enterprises. The coast line of the
North American continent is yet to be defined
the extent and direction of various straits, bays
and inlets separating the Arctic islands are tc
be ascertained the islands themselves are tc
be surveyed Greenland is to be circumnavga
ted All these things will doubtless be ac
complished before 1857, the most OF them dur
ing the current century. An expedition fur
nished with all the results of Mcclure, Collin
son, and Kane, and instructed thoroughly by
planned in England and, if managed with
sense, intrepidity, and attended with good for
tune, may forgather the labors OF generation
or two. The propriety of expeditng overland
from Canada a subsidiary company. provided
completely with the appliances of scientific anC
geographical observation, will not we suspect
be overlooked by her Majesty's Colonial Office
In South America, the grand labors of Hum
boldt and Bonpland-only less valuable because
effected before the natural sciences had assum
ed their present better classifcation-withth The
minor attempts of Herndon and Page, only whe
the appetite for information Paraguay is still
a terra incognitd; the upper waters of the Am
azon have been but cursorily noted the ham
mer of the geoogist has scarcely disturbed thu
echoes of the Andes, with their wondrous peak
and table-lands, abrupt chasms, and irregula
stratifcation; the shelves our museums boas
very few representatives OF the animal and veg
etable fecundity which throngs the prolific plain
at their feet. The Southern half of our hem
isphere is, in fact, vast arena for renumera
tive research-an arena uninterrupted and I'M
impoverished by desert sands. The Empero
of Brazil, we are glad to note, has organized
an expedition to so much of the course of tn
Amazon as lies within his dominions 1t il
designed 10 start early in the coming autumn
Africa more than makes up for the defcien
cies of South America in the article of sand
It's animal kingdom is also upon more slupen
dous scale, adding that formidable obstacle t,
other peculiar perlls of exploration. Never
theless, Ihanks to the enterprise of the Vicero,
of Egypt, The intrepidity of DR.. Livingstone