. Recollections of an ill-fated expedition to the headwaters of the Madeira River in Brazil . arated at Tarma in Peru, took differ-ent routes over the Andes, and followed different tribu-taries leading into the Amazon. Lieutenant Gibbonwent overland to Vinchuta, in Bolivia, and thence bycanoe all the way to Para. Notwithstanding the factthat his party was small and poorly equipped, onecannot read his report to-day without a feeling ofastonishment at the amount and reliability of the infor-mation he was able to collect in a very short time. Hecorrected the best existing maps by his own astronom
. Recollections of an ill-fated expedition to the headwaters of the Madeira River in Brazil . arated at Tarma in Peru, took differ-ent routes over the Andes, and followed different tribu-taries leading into the Amazon. Lieutenant Gibbonwent overland to Vinchuta, in Bolivia, and thence bycanoe all the way to Para. Notwithstanding the factthat his party was small and poorly equipped, onecannot read his report to-day without a feeling ofastonishment at the amount and reliability of the infor-mation he was able to collect in a very short time. Hecorrected the best existing maps by his own astronom-ical observations, made careful report on the resourcesof the country through which he passed, took soundingsin the rivers, and made many valuable notes regardingnavigation, climate, and temperature. An accidenthaving destroyed his barometer, with no other instru-ment than a hastily improvised boiling-point appa-ratus, consisting of a thermometer and a coffee-pot, hetook observations for altitude that enabled him to Explorations in the Valley of the River Madeira, Col. GeorgeEarl AN ILL-FATED EXPEDITION 31 construct an approximately correct profile of his entireroute across the continent of South America. He found that a series of nineteen falls and rapids,extending from Guajara-merim to San Antonio, wasthe sole obstacle to continuous river navigation fromVinchuta, in Bolivia, by way of the Chapare, Mamore,Madeira, and Amazon rivers to the seaport of Para, adistance of about two thousand, two hundred and fortymiles. To pass the obstructions referred to he recom-mended the building of a mule-road between San Anto-nio and Guajara-merim on the east side of the Madeiraand Mamore rivers, through the territory of Brazil,and over substantially the same route afterwardsadopted for the Madeira and Mamore Eailway. Heestimated that by cutting across a bend in the river thelength of the proposed road would not exceed onehundred and eighty miles, and proved conclusivelythat, by co
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