Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1857-07-18

has been accomplished. The White Nile has
been examined within two degrees of the eqna-
tor; advancing from the vicinity Of the Cape,
Livingstone has ,raversed the middle region
obliquely, up to the eighth parallel of South
latitude and, varying his track, he has cross
ed the same country from ocean to ocean, as
shown upon the chart prepared by him, which
accompanies the present paper. Upon the lat
ter route, from longitude 25e to the Mozam-
bique Channel, he had been anticipated by Pc
reira, in 1896. Burton has recently returned
from some remarkable Investigations in the
country back of Natal, throwing light upon
tribes unvisied by Europeans. Africa, never
theless, affords vast area for research. Eihi-
opa is still imperfecty known. A tract as
large as the United States is clothed in utter OBJ
scurity. We know nothing of the Mountains
of the Moon but their name. The source Of
the White Nile is undiscovered. The inland
sea we have referred To has never been seen or
sounded Whole nations, known to us by re-
port, have yet to witness that phenomenon, a
white man. Such is the field still open for ex-
poration; and it is scarcely TO be imagined
that the adventurous spirit of our time will long
leave it without cultivators. We already hear
Of hunting parties, and individuals pushing by
degrees inward from the various European set
Elements upon both shores, supplying if not
exact scientific aud Typographical data, addition
al anecdotes Of the ahorigines There is, more
over, the great Egyptian expedition now upon
the Nile, recruited from the European schools
of science, furnished with apparatus, boats,
necessaries and powerful escort, and nstruc-
ted to stop nowhere short of the mysterious
head of that river, should the search carry them
TO the Lunar mountains, or to the moon itself.
Burton, too, at the head of a strong company,
has landed in Zanguebar, on the eastern side,
in latitude So South, designing to urge his dis
coveries inward until he joins the Egyptian
party, and with them to seek the intercontnen-
tai sea. Should these projects be realized to
the extent the character Of the men engaged in
them warrants, the dark curtain that has from
the beginning shrouded Middle Africa, will at
last be uprolled, and the land of ivory and gold
dust become as familiar TO curious civilization
as the land Of the olive and myrtle
Turning TO Asia, we find great reason to re-
joice that the "golden realm of Ca,hay" is to
uO 'uioWu OptH W tue NOTlu. Uc HIst step
having been taken, Chinese obsinacy will do
the rest. China is broken. The barbarian
will pour in. Foreign Intervention will salts
fly and tranqulize rebellion, restore activity TO
industry, and by settling upon solid foundations
the guarantees of trade, lend it new vitality.
What immense tracts will thus be made pene-
trable to the curious explorer, what boundless
fields nnpnp1 for aduca nd Of
fort, what provocations presented TO antiquarian
and historical inquiry, what temptations to men
of science, what curious and secret processes,
invaluable TO the agriculturst and artisan !!
Indeed, no anIicipations, however enthusiastic,
can be fairly pronounced extravagant, when we
reflect that this is the eldest empire of earth,
the home OF one-third of the human family, the
mother Of those immortal arts, without which
mankind might still be in the dawn rather than
In the noontlde of civilization. 1t will not be
long before Japan will yield to the same press
ure now applied to China, and expand to the
approach of commerce and travel.
There will then remain for examination only
one promising theatre of research, namely the
Ausiralasian archipelago, still indfferently
known even to the Europeans scattered about
it. Australia, had our own Government pos
sessed it, would long ago have been mapped,
acre by acre, in the Land Office, and its entire
topography delineated minuiely. We have no
means of conjecture as to the time the British
Government will be likely to take for the same
task. Certainly, in the anomalous character
of the animal and vegetable life observed there,
we have the prospects of results profoundly in
terestng to the naturalist; while for data to be
supplied only by the rocks of that eccentric
continent the geoogst must continue to wait
patiently. Time, and the enterprise of his
children, will accomplish these things, and
greater. In another century, perhaps the phra-
ses, "unexplored region" "only partially
known" and other similar blazons of geograph.
ical ignorance, will cease to dsfgure The map
What may we not expect from the acceleTating
movement of the agel