The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1885-06-12
Possessions of the United States.

England and Russia-now about to
close in a desperate struggle for Cen
trial Asian supremacy-are credited
with being respectively the first and
second nations of the world in point
of area, and the second and third in
the matter of population. The tenn
ing Chinese Empire is estimated to cx-
coed either in the numbers of its peo-
pie. Next come the Republic of
France and its dependencies in point
of population, and the United States
in area. Much has been said of the
British Empire, on which the sun new.
er sets. and the Russian Empire. which
spreads over an eighth portion of the
globe. Thousands upon thousands of
the square miles of territory dominated
by the Lion and Bear are entirely uu-
inhabitahle, including as they do most
of the North Polar regions of both
hemispheres and arid deserts and step
pes in other climes. The United States
is nearly the equal of either empire in
the extent of habitable area over which
the spangleJ banner floats. And she,
too, has great, almost ]imitless, 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 credited with
as Russia or England, with certain of
their uninhabitable possessions in
frozen zones. Few Biographies show
on their maps these foreign posses
sions of the United States, and a brief
reference to them is likely to surprise
the citizen who has been accustomed
to contemplate the possessions Of the
American Union as hedged in by the
bounds of her States and Territories.
But she can really make quite an ar
ray 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 as far as discov-
cred, and Grinnell Land on the oppo-
site shore of Smith Sound. The ia,
NOUS statisticians, Benin and Wagner,
give the area of the Greenland stretch
of ice and glacier, known as Lincoln
and Grant lands (from seventy-eight
degrees to eighty-three degrees) as
1872. 700 kilometers, and of Grinnell
Land at $3.50. Wrangel Land has
&C, 100 kilometers. There are nc
estimates even of the area of the 7ari.
Jus islands north of Siberia discovered
by the Jeanette, and it is doubtful il
they do not belong to the New Siber.
ian group, classed for many years as
belonging to Russia.
The great American exploring eX.
petition OF 1S4Odiscovered most of the
vast ~ice-hedged coast Of the Antarctic
Continent. which has been roughly
estimated to extend over 1000, 00[
square miles. Some of the lands dis.
covered by Commodore Wilkes have
thus been estimated, the tlgures being
in kilometers: Graham's land, 100. 600
Alexandra. 10000; Wilkes, 165, 600
Enderby, %, 600.
The following islands and groups il
Polynesia belong TO the United States
Barber, PALMYRA, Prospect, Tanning
Christmas. Starbuck. Penryhyn, Swan
Pitt. Mexican, Hull and Enderby. The
United States also owns the Bay o
Pago Page in the Samoan Island.
There are no obtainable statistics o
any of these '.foreisn POSSESSIONS
and the ordinary American citizen i
quite content to think of the Union a
embracing only the sweep of lane
from ocean to ocean and lakes to gulf
not even counting in frozen Alask;
and the girdle of Aleutian Islands tina
span the Pacific Ocean. If other coun
tries were not granted by geographer
their equally important" possessions
popular knowledge of respective area!
would be greatly increased.-Detrot
Free press.