The evening times., 1896-08-18
Territory Equal to One-flf.h Of
the Globe Yet Unknown.
WORK IN THE ANTARCTICs
DR.. Cook Bound for That Region.
Plan OF Western Man, Who Convert
ed Himself Into Balloon, Might
Answer for Polar Searchers-Two
Million Square Miles Not Mapped.

uneXplored area or the earths surface equal
TO one-nfth of all tie known land.
Even in America-North AMI Soutli-there
are 100000 ofssquare miles OF which we
know abso' utely nothing. In Australia there
is an equal tract OF unexplored territory.
In Africa there IRE over 6.0O0,OO0 square
miles OF unknown land to attract the ad-
ven:urous traveller. and in the polar regions
there remain between 5000 900 and TO-.
ooU,000 still unrnapped.
Surrounding the southern axis OF the
| earth. we are warranted in drawing the
coast line OF a vast unknown continent.
covering the greater part OF the territory
lying within the Antarctic circle. Such
lands as are now charted have been sighted
at great distance. and the mapping Is
greatly In need OF authorization. No one.
or at least no one in modern times, has
passed whole year in the Antarctic, and
such observations as have been made have
been confineitothe shor summer months.
EIGHT MILL ION SQUARE MILES.
So little is known OF this vast territory
that speculation sugges is that this unknown
and. in many places, unapproachabie, land
may prove to be 4 continent, which, with
100000 square miles, an area equal to
one-sixth of the entire land surface Of the
globe a continent as large as North
America
Though the coast line of Australia Is
prettyweilkDown,a and has bee since 1S43,
there is great uDexplored interior that
has. so far, baffled all attempt TO cross it
laterally. From south to north II has heen
traversed. thoughthe trip was only nude at
the cost OF great suffering.
Africa viii soon be an open book, " ex-
pior; tion in the future keeps pace with
what has been accomplished in the past.
A great part of the work has been done by
what might be called amateur explorers
people who travel for amusement and to
add strange and fierce wild beasts to their
game score
Frederick jackson. in commani of the ex-
pedition fitted out in England by A. C.
Harmswnrth to seek the north pole by way
of Franz Josef Land. is Eow at work on
this polar problem. Nansen also aimed for
the same point by his own way, which was
| to drift there in a specially designed ship.
! and Robert Stein of the United States geo.
| logical survey wants to establish a new
route by the way of the west coast OF Files
mere Land and Jones Sound.
SOUTH POLAR AREXPLoRATION.
For the exploration OF the south pola re-
gions DR.. Frederick A. Cook OF Brooklyn,
| who was surgeon of Peary's first and most
| successful expedition, Is deyotiDg himself
TO raising the funds Necessary to fit out
| two vessels to proceed there, one of them
| to remain during the winter.
Bnrchgrevinlt who. hy jumping out OF his
| boat and wading ashore, claimed to have
earned the distincU.on OF being tire first man
to set his wet footon the south polar main
land. says tha5 he will accompany British
vessel that is fitting out to bring load OF
penguin guano from that desolate region
! this fall. and devote what time is allowed
him to a solution or the great antarctic
problem.
But what do all these people expect to
| find upon these uueXplorcd lands?
To be sure. there are those who claim
| that the Garden of Eden was located at
| what is now the North Pole, and say that.
| owing to the fact that the earth is flat
tened at the poles, the surface is so much
nearer the internal fires that the Soil is
warm and the vendure luxuriant, and that
| there still exist there the descendants CT
sone OF the childrera of Adam and Eve.
There was a Captain SymnIes, an Eng
| lishman, who lived for some years in Louis
| vile Ky, who had a theory that there was
| a greater depression than the twelve miles
which constitute the difference between
the polar and the equatorial axes of the
| earth would account for, or, in fact, that
| there was hole that ran directly through
| the earth from pole to pole, and that people
\ lived on the inside, as well as upon the
crust OF the earth. This was known as
| "Symmes' Hole"
ANDREE'S EXPEDITION.
Prof. Andree has already gone to spitz-
| bergen to start his balloon upon its polar
| voyage, but it is doubtful il he will ever
| have the pleasure of seeing SyInnes' Hole
| from his breezy car. We have a right to
| expect something, however, from a man
who has been able to sufficiently convince
| several scientific bodies of the feasibility
| of his plans and who has succeeded in get
ting ngtogetherthe thirty five or forty thousand
dollars which the project will cost.
| And yet people who know no more about
| ballooning than that it is unsuccessful
have grave doubts that he can reach the
| pole in that way. His idea is TO elevate
the balloon only sufficiently TO clear the
| hummocky ice and rocks, in order to have
| smootl, sailing for himself and party
There was once man in one of the
| Western towns in this country who had
| plan for tightening load by means OF gas
| that has never been applied 10 polar trav-
cling, and it might be available least,
| to an ordinary person who is not member
of some academy of science, it seems that
it would answer as well as Prof Andree's
| balloon.
The Western thin ker had an idea that by
| making n double garment OF India rubber,
one to fit tightly to his person, and the
other loose enough to hold sufficient gas to
take up the greater part of his weight, his
natural strength would enable him to travel
rapidly and easily. He had the suit made
| and put it on one night, as he didn't want
to excite the ridicule that would attend a
failure. Down to the gas works he went
and had his garment inflated until he
looked something like a gigantic football
| JUMPED FIVE HUNDRED YARDS.
Then he started up the road and found
that the ordinary effort of walking would
carry him along thirty or forty feet at Il
step, and he mad most delightful and ex-
| hilarating experience Sometimes he
Hnw Are XGtlr KidnevS ?