Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-02-21
UNEMPLOYED LANDS.
PARTS OF THE WORLD YET UN-
 VISITED BY TRAVELLERS.

Sealed Book to the White Man-Sahara
 Lands s- South America a- The Polar
 Regions.
 It is likely that within the next twenty or thirty years all the areas that are still wholly unknown, except perhaps within the polar circles, will have yielded their secrets to daring explorers. Inhospitable tribes now rear more barriers than nature does to retard the progress of discovery. While geographers have for years disputed over the conundrum whether the great Sanoo river of Thibet is the headquarters of the Brahmaputra or of the Irrawadi rivers, the fierce little Mishmi tribe has guarded the secret, killed the ad- venturers who dared to intrude among their mountains and left the geographers to wrangle. It was only last year that their country was crossed at last, and it is now evident that the Brahmaputra is a thousand miles longer than some authorities admitted.
 A little northeast of India is Kafiristan, whose lovely valleys are densely peopled by tribes that are physically among the hand somest of Asiatics. Their country is almost a sealed book to us, for only one white man, MT. McNair, has succeeded in crossing their threshold. About four years ago, staining his skin with walnut juice and in the guise of an Indian doctor, he pushed some way into the country until the suspicious natives be- came so inquisitiye that he thought it pru- dent to retreat No scientific traveller has ever reached Lhasa, the capital of Thibet and the Rome of the Buddhists, or pene- trated far into southern Thibet, though many notable attempts have been made. Recently Prejevalsky has tried twice in vain to reach Lhasa, and last year MT. McCauley, after elaborate preparations and after he had spent year in getting the permission of the Chinese and Thibetan authorities to visit Lhasa, was finally turned back before he had crossed the frontier. The only reason that the southern half of Thibet and large part of Napaul and the Himalayas are not white space or mere tumble on our maps, is that native Indians have been trained to the work of exploration by the Indian survey and sent north to travel as mendicants or merchants. They can rarely carry with them scientific instruments larger than compass, and their work, though very valu- able, is far from being thorough and satis- factory. So fearful is the Indian survey that the real business of its native explorers will be discovered that their own friends dc not know where they are sent, and their names are not connected with their explora tions until after they have retired from ac- tive service.
 Similar impediments embarrass the trav- eler in all parts of Mohammedan Africa. Grandly as Earth, Rohlfs, Nachtigal, Lenz and a half dozen others have served the cause of geography ill the Sahara desert, our knowledge of that mountainous and elevated region is anything but thorough and ade- IIa f,1- lii. 1, L,,, who ventures among the Tuaregs and other fierce nomads of the Sahara. Unless he can talk Arabic like a native, and can skillfully assume the guise of Mohammedap, he is all most certain to meet the fate of Mile. Tlnne and Lieut.. Palat. Dr. krause, wishing to enroll his name among the half dozen white men who have reached Timbuctoo, attempted to attain the town from the south. When within 100 miles of bis goal he was stopped and bluntly informed that he might go on to the holy city if he would become Mo hammedan. More scrupulous than some other explorers he declined to become a dis ciple of the Prophet, and was therefore com pelled to turn back.
 The great basin of the Congo has been more prolific of geographical surprises with in the past five years than any other part of the world ill this century And yet the work there has only begun. In this vast area there has been very little exploration except along the water courses, and even the river banks have for the most part received only cursory and preliminary survey. Wiss- mann is now crossing the continent from sea to sea, across the southern part of the Congo basin; Kund and Tappenbeck have made short Journey overland from river to river, but generally speaking the vast regions between the rivers are still almost wholly unknown.
 It is not difficult to see one good reason why South America has been comparatively neglected by travellers, while, on the other hand, Africa has been running over with them. Neither commerce, science, nor mis- sionary ardor have seen ill South America the same promise of rich rewards that have allured them to the uplands of inner Africa. Still such journeys as Dr. Von Steinen and his comrades recently made on the great Xingu tributary of the Amazon, when they discovered curious and wholly unknown tribes and other things of much interest, show that these regions are fine field for the explorer.
 The BrazilianS know less of a large part of their empire than they might easily learn of Nova Zembla, and Ill Ecuador and some other states Whymper and other travellers say that the government maps are hopelessly inaccurate. The best and most interesting explorations in South America are now car ried on by the Argentine Republic. Among their pampas and cordilleras, ill the valleys of Patagonia and on the grassy plains of Terra del Fuego, these researches, now in full progress, have been prolific of geographi- cal sensation. Good, honest exploration up sets hundreds of theories and fanciful stories that have come to be accepted facts.
 It is in the lofty regions of inner Asia that the greatest works of discovery still remain to be achieved The Russian explorers are among the best trained and most competent travellers in the world, and their government is today doing far more than any other ma tion to promote geographical discoveries.
 The Antarctic regions will probably be the next field of polar inquiry, and some steps to this end have been ta-.en both ill Great Britain and Australia. AS the south polar region is not, like the Arctic zone, crowded with islands and archipelagoes. it is of much more importance ill the study of ocean cur rents.
 Strange as it may seem, the Pacific ocean is still far from we'll known. When Wilfred Powell expressed the belief that many Pacific islands had never yet been seen by white men some incredulity was manifested. Since that time Capt. Bruce has discovered little group of islands off the northeast coast of New Guinea, MT. Romilly found a new island