The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1884-01-23
Among the Geographers

The Danish expedition under
Lieut.. Hammers has completed the
survey and mapping of the west
coast of Greenland from its southern
extremity to Upernavik. This work
has been in progress for five years.
and is of great value to the naviga-
tors to Baffin's Bay.
Lieut.. Wiseman, who crossed
Africa from west to east In 1881 81,
some two or three degrees south of
the Congo, has been engaged by the
African International Society to
command new expeditin in the
basin of the Congo.
The expedition will be organized
on a large scale. Wiseman and his
comrade, DR.. Pogge, in their recent
trip found some remarkable tribes
whose towns contained thousands OF
paople, and whose knowledge OF
agriculture, iron. working, and some
sorts of manufactures was quite
advanced.
Prot Nordenskiold has believed,
since he made the northeast passage.
that in August every year vessels
from Europe could pass through the
Kara Sea and reach the 1enlsel
River. If this were so it would be
fact of commercial Importance; but
the experience Of Lieut.. Hovgaarn in
the Dijumphan and Of the interna-
tional polar party in the Narna con-
firms the older belief that 1T Is not
safe to count at any time upon the
navigability of the Kara waters.
Lieut.. Hovgaarn has given up his
trip along the Siberian coast and
has returned to Vardo Ola his way
home.
James Stuart, a civil engineer in
the employ of theLondon Missionary
Society, is building road between
Lakes Nyassa and Tanganyika. He
has completed seventy miles of the
road, and, as he expects to finish 1t
soon, the society has sent to him
steamboat, built in sections for trans
portation overland, which he will
/ launch on Lake Tanganylika. The
Scottish Missionary Society has two
steamers now on Lake Nyassa.
Goods can be taken all the way from
London to the north end of Nyassa
bysteamer, except at the rapids in
the river Shire, around which they
have to be carried by land.
The Willem Barents returned TO
Holland a while age after the sixth
annual voyage in Arctic seas. This
little schooner is supported by pri-
vate enterprise at small expens. lt
has added much to our knowledge
of the Barents and Kara Seas. 1t
is the only sailing vessel that has
sighted Franz Josef Land, and it
has established the fact that except
in very unfavorable years a wide
stretch of water comparatively free
from ice extends in August through
the Barents Sea to Franz Josef Land
on about longitude AS east. Arctic
enthusiasts now regard this as the
most promising line on which to at
tack the polar problem.
The immense ice fields that bar
the way to the Antarctic lands have
discouraged south polar exploration
for many years. The geography
problems in tina. part of the world
will be attacked with fresh vigor
next summer by Prof. Nordensk-
ljold, who will try to reach lands
that have been seen but not attained
by other explorers. There is sud-
den revival of interest in south polar
work. The French will establish
next summer a scientific observing
station at Cape Horn, and the Ger.
mans also will station a party on
the Barren island of South Georgia,
only about $50 miles northeast of
the lite known terra firma, Graharl's
Land.
The colonists who left England on
Christmas to settle in New Guinea
will be practically the pioneers in
land that is nearly as large as Eng
land, France, and Ireland together.
Next to Australia, it is the largest
island in the world. Its soil is very
fertile, it abounds in fine natural
harbors, and most of the country is
healthful. Many of the natives are
cannibals, but they have been friend
ly toward the whites, as far as their
fears have permitted them to be.
D'Albertis, the Italian explorer,
trusted himself alone among them
tor nearl y year, and from his re-
ports and the records of Baccari,
another Italian traveller, is derived
the greater part of the information
we have of this little known land.
New Guinea is north of Australia.
from which it is separated by
strait only eight miles wide, and
Queensland is still agiiating the
question of annexing the island.
The unhealtfulness of MANY parts
of Africa is the great obstacle in
the way of opening it to civiliza-
ton. Nine out of twenty French
missionaries have died in two years,
and the ranks of the International
Soclety's pioneers have been sadly
depleted. The news has just come
that James Stewart, G. t., who was
building the road between Lakes
Nyassa and Tanganyika, is dead.
Explorers agree that the unsalubrity
OF this country is largely due to the
fact that the excessive luxurince of
vegetation along the river banks
raises them above their proper level,
} cutting off the drainage from the
plants. DR.. Schweinfurth and the
Portuguese explorers Capella and
lvens are convinced that great
change in the climate can be made
by scientific drainage, and that, in