Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1874-02-05
Geographical Discovery i'm 1873.

: IHdHkS 10 the SXtonIlOn OF Stear
:. travel by land or water, movemen
0 from one quarter to another of tn
world We live in has been greatly facil
, itated of late years. Travel, the litera
/ ture OF which forms q large and con
t stantly increasing library, is gradual,
making hitherto unknown regions
, familiar to the mass Of readers, and th.
| regions heretofore marked unknown
on the maps, and dotted with elepant:
instead of towns, are rapidly becoming
fewer and smaller. One hundred
years ago the charts made an island Of
|, the peninsula of California, and within
half a century the Niger was represent.
ed as emptying into Lake Tcnad, in
stead of the Atlantic Ocean, and in
other parts of the earth errors as giar-
ing had high scientific sanction. We
do not known our terrestrial domain
thoroughly even now. The long cata-
logue of geographical discoveries an.
nually published by learned societies is
at once an evidence both of imperfect
information aud of the zeal with which
men are endeavoring to fectify and
complete it,
The American Geographical Society,
one of the most respectable bodies of
its class, lately held It's annual meeting
in New York, and was addressed by
Judge Daily, its President, on the pro-
gress which had been made during the
preceding tweivemonth.
He may be said to have delivered a
lecture rather thai a speech, for he
detailed with great minuteness the
results of explorations in all sections of
! the world since the last meeting. In
our own country, in the region of the
| UpDed Columbia River, prehistoric re-
rnains of camels, rhinoceros, and other
animals were found by Prof. Morse's
party, and also the skeletons of horses.
these last were not known to have eX-
listed on our continent previous to their
introduction by the Spaniards. and the
Mormons are delighted to find what
they claim to be confirmation of the
assertion of their Scriptures that their
were horses here in the far remote days
which they describe. The Crater Lake
OF Oregon, a body of water with sur
rounding walls instead of banks, and
almost, if not quite, unique in its char
acter, has also been made known to the
world by the same expedition.
J'he wonderful ruins known TO exist
in Combodia, Asia, have been visited
by French expedition, under Lieut..
Garnier. The remains o. the city OF
Anger are especially noticeable. They
are distiug Unstable tor their magnIti-
cence, the elaborateness of The sculp-
ture, and their extent, the four sides of
the principal temple measuring two
miles aud Quarter. Wandering
through the remains of endless roads,
buried in forest and jungle, Lieut.. Gar
nier came upon The ruins of monument
after monument, each, if possible, more
astonishing than the preceding. The
architecture and sculpture exhibit a
very advanced knowledge of the arts,
and the main temple is described as
the masterpiece of scme unknown
Michael Agelo.
Mr.. Yincent's late work, "The Land
of the White Elephant" furnishes
some interesting descriptions of these
structures. Prot. Schliemann's inves-
LEGATIONS at Troy have yielded impOr-
tant results, but they have already been
described in our columbus.
In Europe key has been discovered
tc the language of the ancient Etrus-
cans. Two dice were found in tomb,
which in place of being marked with
pips or dots, as is usual, are marked
instead with words, and these words
are identical with the first six digits in
the Altaic branch of the Turanian fam
lily Of languages. Following this clue
the Rev. j. Taylor has Investigated
5000 Etruscan inscriptions, and if his
conclusions should be correct these two |
dice will, ineonpection with previous /!
researches, do for the Etruscan Ian |
guage very nearly what the Rosetta
Stone did for the English hierogly-
phics.
THE alleged discovery by Mr.. f. Cal
vert of conclusive proofs of the exis-
tence of man in the miocene period of |
the tertiary age, the most important Of !
which was a rude engraving OF a quad !
ruped upon fragment of bone, has /
been discredited, subsequent inyeStiga- |
tions having thrown doubt upon the |
correctness of his conclusions as to the |
age to which the remains belong.
We need not dwell upon the record |
of the misfortuneS of Polaris pedition,
romantic as they were, and creditable |
as was the undertaking to the enter.
prise of our country. American ex- !
,piOrerS have made it evident, during |
the year, that ship canal across the
IsthLpuS of Darien, from AtralO, on the |
Gull OF Darien, to near Cupica, on the |
Pacific, can be constructed at an ex-
pens eOf :Ap, ,00O, coo, and in ten years |
time. There is so much river navlga-
tion on the roa;e that Il hand cut OF
twentyzeight miles only is required.
In Palestine, besides the important
subterranean explorations Jerusalem,
the American Commission has been
successfully working east OF the Jordan |
the English taking the territory west
of that river. The principle American !
discoveries are the Identification of the
ancient city of Gazer, and the supposed |
descendants of the heathenish Canaan !
ties in the Lebanon range. Their re- |
ligiOn is mixture of the worship OF
Baei, Astarte, the heavenly bodies, |
Mohammedanism, and Christianity, |
with traces of the Jewish law. The |
British expedition, after much investi-
cation ip t3e peninsula of Sinai, have
decided
1. That this peninsula was the scene |
of the events accorded in the history of
the Exodus, and its examination has |
certainly furnished remarkable cor
roboartion of the truthfulness and ac-
curacy of the biblical history.
3. That the country is extremely |
wild and rugged +; that it was one of the
most complicated systems of drainage
in the world, and that the present bar
renness and desolation are due to
neglect.
8. That Jebel Musa is undoubtedly |
the mount from whence the law was
delivered.
African is being penetrated by Il
German expedition from the West
Coast by DIR. Rohlps, under the patron
age of the Viceroy of Egypt, in the re-
gion of the Libyan desert, and Com |
piegne and Mague, two Frenchmen,
have been enpaped in tracing I'D the |