gl is pronounced like li in pavilion, and ng like ni in union; sc-sh, zz-ts.

Now, the following, like other Italian geographical names, will be easily pronounced with correctness:

Carrara, Málta, Spoleto, Palérmo; Torino, Bríndisi; Ancona, Campo Fórmio; Siracusa, Abruzzo.

Cremōna, Capri, Ischiă, Como, Custózza;-Vercélli, Cívita Vécchia, Ajaccio.

Gran Sasso, Mónte Gárgano, Lago di Como, Gúǎstálla ;—Perugia, Ādige, Lago Maggiore.

Cágliari; Legnano; Scirocco (the hot wind); Abruzzo. ITALIAN isola island, riviera coast, monte

=

=

=

moun

tain, lago lake, canale canal, città, or civita=city, villa =village; sásso rock, vénto wind; chiave key; levánte-east, ponénte=west; gran, gránde=great, maggiōre=greater, rotóndo=round, vécchio (fem. vécchia) old, nuovo=new, franco=free, bello=beautiful;—spartire to divide ;-di-of (gen.).

=

=

ISOLA BELLA=THE BEAUTIFUL ISLAND (lying in the Lago Maggiore);—CAPE SPARTIVENTO=THE WIND DIVIDING CAPE;-MONTE ROTONDO (on the Island of Corsica) THE ROUND MOUNTAIN-MONTE NUOVO THE NEW MOUNTAIN (it is formed of ejected masses, which were thrown up at the time of the eruption of Vesuvius, in 1538 A. D.);—GRAN SASSO (D'ITALIA)=THE GREAT ROCK (OF ITALY), the highest pinnacle in the Abruzzo;: -LAGO MAGGIORE THE GREATER LAKE;-LAGO DI COMO =LAKE (of the city) OF COмO;-CANALE GRANDE (in Venice)=THE GRAND CANAL.

RIVIERA DI LEVANTE=THE EASTERN COAST; —RIVIERA di Ponente=the western coast (the coast on the Gulf of Genoa).

CIVITA VECCHIA=THE OLD CITY;-VILLAFRANCA= THE FREE VILLAGE, lying southward of Verona (cessation of arms on the 11th of July, 1859, A. D.);-CHIAVENNA KEY-CASTLE (it commands the highway over the pass of Splugen).

GREEK: oppos=harbor, port; nóλ=city; årzwv=elbow, angle; 5árzin=sickle, òpénava=sickle;—véos (fem. véa)= new, ἄκρος=pointed, στρογγύλος (fem. στρογγύλη)=round, λίπαρος=fat ; πᾶς (fem. πάσα, neut. πᾶν)=all; τρία = three.

SICILY was formerly named TRINAKRIA=THE THREEPOINTED island (from its form);-Strongyle, now STROMBOLI=THE ROUND island (it consists of a single conical mountain);-LIPARI ISLANDS THE FAT ISLANDS (SO called because the ancient inhabitants sold large quantities of alum and sulphuric salts).

Panormus, now PALERMO=(all-harbor), CONVENIENT HARBOR (so named from the wide gulf there);-ZANKLE

CITY OF SICKLE (the harbor is surrounded by a sickleshaped neck of land); after the immigration of the Messenians from the Peloponnesus the ancient name of this city was changed into Messana, now Messina ;Drepanum, now TRÁPANI CITY OF SICKLE (so called from the face of the peninsula, on which it is situated); -Neapolis, now NAPLES (the Italian Napoli)=THE NEW CITY; ANCONA=(elbow), ANGLE (from its position in an angle of the coast; Greeks from Syracuse settled in this place, in 380 B. C.).

Piérpen to burn, cierpała=PLACE OF BURNING; hence Φλέγρειν the PHLEGREAN FIELDS, west of Naples, with extinguished volcanoes and hot sulphur-springs.

LATIN: mons=mountain, montium (gen. pl)=of the mountains;—campus=plain, flos (pl. flores)=flower

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pes=foot, pede (abl.) on the foot, ostium (gate), ostium=(gate), mouth;—evéntus=event;-bene=well,-male-badly;placere to please;-cis-on this side.

CAMPANIA THE PLAIN COUNTRY; Pedemontium, now PIEDMONT (the country) AT THE FOOT OF THE MOUNTAINS, -Northern Italy received from the Romans the name of GALLIA CISALPINA, or GALLIA ON THIS SIDE OF THE ALPS (it was inhabited by Gauls).

OSTIA CITY AT THE MOUTH (so called from its former position at the mouth of the Tiber);-Florentia, now FLORENCE CITY OF FLOWERS;-Beneventum, now BENEVENTO=GOOD EVENT (the original name of Maleventum, or bad event, was changed into Beneventum after the victory of the Romans over Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, in 275 B. C.);—Placentia, now PIACENZA=PLACE, or city OF PLEASURE (So called from its delightful situation).

EMILIA takes its name from the via EMILIA, the high-way built by the Roman Censor Æmilius Lepidus, in 186 B. C.

AUGUSTA: Many cities were named in honor of the Emperor Augustus;-Augusta Prætoria, now AOSTA, or AUGUSTA of the Pretorians, the imperial life-guard, was founded as a colony of veterans, in 25 B. C.-Augusta Taurinorum, now TURIN Augusta in the country of the TAURINI.

CELTIC: pen mountain; hence THE APENNINES=

THE MOUNTAINS.

Etruria took its name from the ETRUSCANS, and is now known as TUSCANY-LOMBARDY THE COUNTRY OF THE LOMBARDS, who conquered Upper Italy, in 568 A. D.-ALESSANDRIA, founded A. D. 1170, was named in honor of Pope ALEXANDER III. (To be continued.)

PROBLEM

OF INTEROCEANIC COMMUNICATION BY WAY OF THE AMER

ICAN ISTHMUS, BEFORE THE AMERICAN

GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.

NEW YORK, OCTOBER 20TH, 1889.

MR. PRESIDENT :-No contradiction having been offered to my communication under the above title, that this learned Society kindly permitted to be inserted in their BULLETIN for December of last year, I will leave the question to stand on its own merits.

Meanwhile I beg to be allowed, in the interest of science, to present some of the records of historical facts which led me to bring to light, if not a new, at least a long forgotten and most important feature in the geographical and geological knowledge of our continent; I mean the former existence of a free communication of both oceans through a natural separation between the Panamá cordillera to the North, and the Occidental range of the Andes to the South; the place where lies the unique available passage for a tide-level canal across the American Isthmus.

It was known, as every one conversant with the matter is aware, by the name of "the secret of the strait," which very appellation implies that it was acknowledged to exist, not so deeply hidden, however, that through proper and diligent search, it could not be unveiled. In fact, its existence was hinted at, centuries

before the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus; that is to say, as far back as the traditions of ancient Egypt and Greece, referring to those two far away immense islands spoken of in the Dialogues of Plato.

It was indicated by the generic names of "Northern. Darien, great river of Darien and Southern Darien," given in the oldest MS. Spanish maps to the present "Gulf of Uraba, river Tuyra and Gulf of San Miguel," respectively.

Its location had been pointed out, as early as 1550, by the great Portuguese navigator, Antonio Galvão, as a round about route from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

It was practically illustrated in the beginning of 1680, by the crossing of above 400 filibusters, in 18 large canoes, under the guidance of the Indians; a fact which I found particularly described in original reports at the Hydrographic Depot of Madrid; repeated in the MS. memoirs of the Rev. F. Jacobo Nalburger, S. J., missionary in that territory from 1741 to 1749; and, I am told, stated also in the History of the Buccaneers printed in London.

Finally, the choice of the Darien has also been recommended in general terms by the illustrious Baron von Humboldt; and most pointedly by the eminent geographer Admiral Fitzroy; so much as to name the rivers. Paya and Cacarica," as forming the connection, across a low, narrow tract, between the Tuyra and the Atrato. (P. 185 of Vol. XX of the Royal Geo. Soc.'s Transactions in 1850.)

My confirmatory survey of the ground in 1866 was not therefore presented as a discovery proper, but rather as the unearthing from the dust of the archives