The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1885-06-03
our DISTANT POSSESSIONS.
Islands and Continents Belonging to the
United States of Which little Is Ever
Snid.

Much has been said of the British EN-.
pre-, on which the sun never sets,
and the Russian Empire, which spreads
over an eighth portion of the globe. Thou
sands upon thousands of the square miles
OF territory dominated by the Lion and
Bear are entirely uninhabitable, including
rs they do most of the North Polar regions
Of both hemispheres and arid deserts and
Iteppes in other chimes. The United States
Is nearly the equal Of either empire in the
extent of habitable area over which the
spangled banner floats. And she, too, hos
great, almost limitless, areas of ice-covered
continents and islands which are never
counted as part of her landed possessions,
and yet which she may quite as Justly be cred
tied with as Russia or England, with GER
tain of their uninhabitable possessions in
frozen zones. Few Biographies show on
their maps these foreign possessions of the
United States and a brief reference to them
is likely to surprise the citizen who has
been accustomed TO contemplate the posses
sions of the American Union as hedged in
by the bounds of her States and Territories.
But she can really make quito an array of
foreign possessions, which are hers by the
divine right of discovery, which has given
to most of the powers of the earth their
foreign dependencies. The voyages of Kane
and subsequent American explorers thus gave
the United States the whole northwestern
portion of Greenland on far as discovered,
and Grinnell Land on the opposite shore of
Smith Sound. The famous statisticans,
Benin and Wagner, give the area Of the
Greenland stretch Of ice and glacier, known
as Lincoln and Grant lands 0rom seventy
eight degrees to eigthy-three degrees) as
1872, 100 kilometers, and Of Grinnell Land at
$3.50. Wrangel Land has &C., kilome-
ters. There are no estimates even of the area
Of the various islands north on Siberia dis
covered by the Jeanette, and it Is doubtful
if they do not belong to the New Siberian
group, classed for many years as belonging
to Russia.
The great American exploring expedition
Of 1910 discovered most of the vast ice
hedged coast Of the Antarctic Continent,
which has been roughly estimated to extend
over 1000, 900 square miles. Some of the
lands discovered by Commodore Wilkes
have thus been estimated, the figures being
in kilometers Graham's land, 100, 1000 /;
Alexandra, 10000; Wilkes, 165, 1000; En-
derby, $4,000.
The following islands and groups in Po-
lynesa belong to the United States; Bar.
Der, Palmyra, Prospect, Tanning, Christ
mas, Starbuck, Penryhyn, Swan, Pitt, Nc
Kean, Hull and Enderby. The United
States also owns the Bay of Pago in the
samoan Islands.
There are no obtainable statistics Of any
If these " foreign possessions" and tho or
binary American citizen Is quite content to
think of the Union rs embracing only the
sweep of land from ocean to ocean and
lakes to gulf, not even counting in frozen
Alaska and the girdle of Aleutian Islandi
that span the Pacific Ocean. II other coun.
tries were not granted by geographers their
equally " important" possessions, popular
knowledge Of respective areas would be great.
iy increased.