The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-02-25
Dr.. Junker and Sir James August
Grant, Who Added to Human
knowledge.
Tho Former Worked Entirely
Alone ana Paid All His Own
Expenses.
The Problem of Welle Max Ia Work OF
Sir James Grant. ea1o usies of tho
@ WildernexA

African explorer died last week III Russia
says the New York Sun. No student o
exploration in she dark continent will rea,
without regret of the cutting off in tn
prime of his life of DIR. Wilhelm johann
Junker. ~ .--'4l. ~
DR.. Junker's long explorations never cos
any one but himself a dollar. He was ricf
enough to have led a life Of eaae. He chose
to spend his best wears beyond the reach
of the most ordinary comforts that he
might add to human knowledge. The most
valuable researches to be made hereafter
in Africa will be upon the lines which DIR.
Junker was the first to lay down. He had
no desire to repeat the achievements of
those explorers whose journeys were 80 hur-
ried that they could not see half that was
worth seeing nor describe accurately what
they saw. He preferred to live for years
among the tribes most worthy of study,
and to devote to them and to all the
aspects Of the regions they mhab-
tied the most deliberate and pains
taking observations. Such was his method
in the old Bahr ell Ghazal province of
Egypt, a country surprisingly rich in every
phase OF tropical life, the home of two of
the most advanced and int, esting tribes
in central Africa, and where the solution of
more thar one mystery of African geogra-
phy was to be found. Here he lived for
seven years, cut off most of the time from
all hope Of communicating with the civilized
world: and, thanks to his labors, this
region is now more infinitely known in its
geographic and chronological aspects than
any other region of equal extent in central
Africa. .sa -. .. r.. .r
DR., Junker's achievements show the sac
riices and hardships which an unseltish
devotion to science nerves some men to I'M
dergo. For some years he was without the
~comradeship of anyone of kindred blood.
He lived among the natives almost as one
of them, sharing their huts, sustaining life
upon their rude cookery, learning even to
relish fried ants and other mysteries of
native culinary art, displaying no weapons
the music of his ACCORDION. going wherever
he pleased, but nowhere till he had
convinced the people before him of his
friendly Intentions. He made very large
collections, which were lost through the
mahdist invasion, but the results of his
geographical labors were saved, and all
geographers were thankful for the abund-
ant material he brought home. He helped
to solve the problem Of the Welle Makua,
which proved to be the Congo's greatest
tributary, though g~sographers had long
inclined totthe belief that it was the upper
course Of the Shari, which flows into Lake
Tchad. and while engaged upon this
geographers regard as very remarkable.
DIR. Junker had lived several years in this
savage wilderness before he set out to solve
the problem of the Welle Makua. He
started on this journey with absolutely no
instrument except q compass to aid him in
determining his positions. Some of his in
, struments had been broken and Others
ruined by the climate during many months
of almost incessant travelling. The re-
markable care with which he sought to pro-
duce d map worth studying in spite of his
lack of scientific appliances has already
been described in the Sun as follows:
"Junker trudged through the grass, COM
expiration of each fifteen minutes he
stopped and jotted down in his notebook
the distance and the mean direction trav-
eled in the preceding quarter of an hour.
In the evening he entered the days prog
ress on his route map. He kept up this
monotonous and trying routine through
the weeks and months of his long journey
down the Welle Makua; and when. at last,
he was compelled to turn back he con-
tinued the task until he reached once more
his headquarters at Ndoruma's. He had
travelled down the river from this point,
whose latitude and longitude he had pre-
viously determined, nearly 400 miles.
It was not known until the report of
Lieut.. Marinel's Astronomical observations
reached Europe last gear that the point
where DR.. Junker turned back. and whose
situation he determined without instru-
ments at the end of a journey of 400 miles,
is marked on his map less than two miles
distant from its proper position. It is the
most remarkable achievement of this sort
on record.
Dr.. Junker lived to complete his work.
The results of his long studies fill two
large volumes, and have been published in
German and English.