The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1876-01-07

have been made within the last lew
years, the next generation, or perhaps
the next century, will have very little,
perhaps nothing, left to accomplish.
Livingstone, Baker, Stanley. Grant,
Speke and others have exploded the
course and the sources of the Nile, and
a very large area at the centre of Africa;
and now Col. Cameron, of the English
army, has completed the journey across
the continent from east to west, proving
that the Lnaiaba river, having its course
in Lake Tanganvika, is part of the
Congo.-thns solving one of the last and
the greatest geographical problems Of
that continent.
No marked and immediate CONNER
cial advantages can be expected from
these discoveries. But that civiliza-
tion will gradually make the vast fertile
sections of the interior of Africa avail
able for mans highest development,
there can be no doubt. The lower val
ley of the Nile was the home of the rich
est, the most pOpulous, and the most
powerful of the ancient nations, IA well
as the most learned and the most intel
lectual. 1t was, in fact, the nation that
.aught after ages science and the arts of
man first began ito replenish the earth
and to subdue it." The valley of the
Nile may again become the home of a
rich, intellectual. and powerful nation.
But we now have alsO explored. and
waiting the advent of civilized man,
the great Valleys of the Znmbezi, the
ORANGE, the Congo, and the Niger, por-
tions of which are exceedingly rich and
productive. Vast sections hack from
the coast are by no means unhealthy,
and the people inhabiting some of them
are not so debased and savage as might
be expected from ignorant heathens.
Hence these latter explorations of Afri-
ca may have higher significance and a
more commanding influence upon the
future progress of mankind than ali that
has been done previously for that vast
continent.
And now comes a Russian explorer,
who, sailing eastward along the north
ern shore of Europe, aud penetrating a
sea hitherto supposed to be closed by
walls of impenetrable ice, explores the
Obi and the Yenesei rivers. in Northern
Asia, and finds them rich in grasses,
forests, and other articles for commercial
intercourse. The valleys of these great
rivers, he thinks, can be reached from
Europe by the route which he has
traversed.
These later researches seem to point
to the time, not distant in the future,
when every portion of the habitabIe
globe will be known, and its climate, re-
sources, and, in general, the means it
has to support civilized and highly
cultivated people, will be we'll under
stood. Certainly no fears need be in
dulged, for ages to come, that the earth
will become overpopulated. Proper in
telligent culture would canse it to yield
food enough and to spare for hundreds,
perhaps thousands, of times as many
penple now live upon it.
Within the knowledge of men now
living, China and Japan have been open
ed to commerce; Africa is now nearly
all ex plored; New Holland has been set
tied; and all the earth is open, or soon
will h to the energies and the appli-
ances of our modern civilization. The
railway, the telegraph and the steam
ship-all the product of the present CEN
tury-will contribute to mans domin-
ion over the earth, and to his intellect
ual and moral development, as no
agencies in the past ever did. The rail
ways will connect at the leading cities
of all continents; the steamer already
vexes every sea, and soon will navigate
all the great rivers and the lakes of the
earth; and the telegraph will soon en-
brace the entire world, and fash to all
lands each days doings from age to age.
Evidently the world ia on the eve of a
new, perhaps startling, era in the his
tory Of the race.