The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1896-08-20
OUR GREAT GLOBE.
There Are 10000, 600 Square Miles of
the Earth Yet to BE Explored.
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There Are ZO,OOO,OOO square MICS OF
the Earth Yet to Be Explored.
Literary Digest)
We are apt to think that we moderns
have very little to do in the way Of ex-
ploring the globe, and that the recent
explorations In Africa have quite put
the finishing touch to geographical
knowledge, so that he who wishes to
set foot on virgin soil must sigh, like
Alexander. for another world. Those
who entertain such opinions may calm
themselves with the thought that no
less portion of the earth's surface
than 20.000,000 square miles is yet At
subject for investigation, and on a
large part of this the foot of civilized
man has not yet trod. We translate
from 'Comos" paris, June g. an ar
ticle that brings this fact out very
clearly. 1t runs as follows:
AT the London Geographical Con-
gress Mr.. Logan Lobby gave very
interesting study Of the present state
of exploration of the globe. 1t appears
that modern geographers have an i'm
mense amount of labor before them to
make us acquainted with all parts of
the earth. This conclusion will aston
ish some people. for there is a general
impression that almost all regions of
the earth are well explored.
"Mr. Lobby reminds us that in the
first place, toward the middle of the
sixteenth century, all seas had been
traversed by navigators, and that If
the maps of the continents were not
yet very exact, at least their relative
positions and their general conf1gura-
ton were known. Australia itself ap-
pears on a French mup OF 1912 under
the name OF Great Java. In the course
of the sixty years included in the last
decade Of the fifteenth century and the
first half Of the sixteenth plead Of
navigators had advanced geographic
knowledge in a degree that has never
been reached in any other period 80
short. Sebastian d'Elano had made his
first voyage around the world; vasco da
Cana had doubled the Cape of Good
Hope; Christopher Columbus had add
ed the two Americas to the map; the
voyages Of Cabot, of Magellan, had
completed this wonderful list of new
discoveries.
To-day, outside of the Polar regions,
we must confess that all the seas have
been explored, but this is far from
being the case with the land. An i'm
mense extent is entirely unknown to
US; another, still more considerable has
been only imperfectly explored; travel
ers have traversed 1t, commerce has
exploited some of its products, but good
maps of 1t do not exist Finally, only
the least part is well known; geodesy
has covered 1t with network Of tri.
angles and the maps Of it are compla ].
even from typographical standpoint.
After the Arctic and Antarctic re-
gions, which have remained inaccessi-
BILE up to the present time, Africa is the
part of the world that Is least known
to us, notwithstanding the admirable
explorations made in this century.
which are daily clearing up the map.
The earliest explorers, however, could
not dream of serious efforts, and many
years will pass before the country will
be thoroughly explored.
After Africa, Australia offers the
vastest field to the Investigation of ex-
plorers; we must remember that even
Its seacoast was not fully explored till
1S43. Since that time, at the price Of
great suffering, it has been crossed
| from south to north, but no traveller
has yet traversed 1t from east to west,
I'm the two Americas, except the ex-
IRENE northern and southern parts. the
continent is known; nevertheless the
whole central region of South America,
though in great part explored for COM
mercial purposes (for mines, woods,
caoutchouc. etc), is not exactly mapped.
ITO sum up, the yet UNEMPLOYED parts
of the globe cover an area of about
5O,OoO,ooe square kilometres about 2o,-
100000 miles,, approximately divided
thus: Square
Miles
Africa. ..... 49,. -. -. -. e,5Oo.ooC
Australia. ............ -. ;. 2,Ooo.ooC
America. :. -. :. :. 49,. 100000
Asia. :. -. ;. :. :. ;. :. -. 100000
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