Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-03-30
UNKNOWN LANDS.
Vast Tracts That Are Still IA Sealed Book
IIs.
From Golden Days,

From Golden Days.
The surface of the earth comprises an
area of 200,000,000 square miles, of which
three-fourths is covered with water. This
leaves 5O,000,000 of square miles of land
for the human race to occupy, or about one
square mile for every thirty-ive persons,
big and little.
1t would seem that such an area would
be enough to prevent crowding, and so it
would if the density of population were
the same all over the world
But we find that the human race, either
from choice or accident, has always hud-
died itself into certain parts of the world,
leaving other parts either entirely de-
serted or very sparsely populated. Some
very good reasons sometimes exist for
these irregularities, and at other times the
reasons are hard to find.
We can easily understand why Green
land, for instance, or Patagonia should not
be densely settled, but it is not easy to un-
derstand how the great continent of Aus
tra!ia came to be SO long without inhabi-
tants.
1t is curious to note the queer way in
which populations have shifted in the
course of ages. Asia, as the cradle of the
human race, first became thickly settled,
and contains to this day two countries
China and Hindostan-wheret the p0pula-
tion is extremely dense. But portions of
Asia-such as Arabia and Persia-from all
accounts must nave lost hall, if not more,
of their population during the last thou
sand years.
Great as the Shah of Persia fancies HIM
self to be, he is but a puny prince COM
pared with the great Darius or Nerxes.
Africa has likewise suffered an enor-
nous loss of population since ancient
times. We have ample proof that the val
ley of the Nile once swarmed with life, and
all through North Africa, now almost a
desert, given up to wild beasts and wider
| men, civilization once fourished to re-
markable extent
Europe was settled from the south, and
the very small portion comprising Italy,
Spain and the islands of the Mediterra-
mean sea were populous for centuries,
while what we know now rs France, Ger
/ many, England, Austria and Russia were
forests and deserts, quite as barbarous and
uncultivated as the present interior of
| Africa.
These were the countries of antiquity,
North and South America and Australia
being unknown Yet the two former were
| densely populous in ages long ago.
| The Valleys of the Missouri, Ohio and
Mississippi swarmed with people engaged
in business and agriculture; Mexico had
population much exceeding its present
one; the ruins of great cities in Central
America attest its former greatness, and it
is certain that Peru, under the Incas, was
the seat of a mighty civilization. Austria
liza, however, has always been sparsely
settled country.
Such has been The changes of time that
| much of the world is still an unknown
land, and we are now busily engaged in
rediscoyering much that was known be-
fore
Europe has nothing to disclose, but a
great part of Asia, and nearly three
fourths of Africa, is still a sealed book to
us modern. The explorations of Stanley,
and those who preceded him, are mere
spider tracks in the desert, and our best
maps of Africa are half guess work.
In Asia there is Thibet, Turkestan and
the great desert of Sahara to be explored.
We know almost nothing of Borneo, Pa
pua or Madagascar, and thousand of
islands in the Pacific ocean are still unex-
plored
Great tracts of Australia have never
been trodden by the foot of white man,
and nearly all of South America, inside of
the coast lines, is known only by hearsay
and tradition. Coming up to our northern
half of the continent, we encounter more
unknown lands. Central America and
Mexico offer fertile fields for exploration,
and Lower California has never been thor
oughly explored.
In the far North is Greenland, Baffin
Land, the Hudson Bay region, all of Brit
lsh America north of latitude coo, and our
great territory of Alaska. Here is Won
derful field for adventurous explorers, and
1t IS impossible to predict what is n store
for them. The natives of Northern Alaska
also report that further north is another
land, not down on the maps-an inhab-
tied land with comparatively mild eli
mate.
Even in the new State of Washington
there is an unknown land of $500 square
miles. This land is shut in by the Olym-
pic mountains, and Indian traditions say
| that it is inhabited by very fierce tribe,
which none of the coast tribes dared mo-
lest.
Here, then, is half of cur 50,000,000
square miles consisting of unknown lands
What a magnificent field for the men in
search of health, wealth and knowledge,
and what room it gives for future genera
tions to travel and settle All of it is nes
fertile; some is unhabitable on account Of
severity of climate, but much of it is as
fair as any land we know and fully as ca
pable of supporting life.
The estate of Robert Browning amounted
to sS5,0o0, all earned by writing poetry.