The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-11-06
TERRA INCOGNlTA.
Vast Sections Of the Globe Tha
Are still UNEMPLOYED.
Twenty Million Square Miles OF
Unknown Territory.

/
by geographers. and that The very
little that yet remains TO investigate is
on the African continent. And yet
the fact il that about twenty million
square miles Of this earths surface is
yet terra inoognita, one-tenth Of
which Is on our own continents OF
North and South America.
The Cosmos. published in Paris,
has an article on this subject which
gives q synopsis OF an address by Mr..
Lobby before the London Geographi-
cal Congress last month. that brings
ont this interesting question very
clearly.
Mr.. Lobley reminds us that, in the
first place, toward the middle of the
sixteenth century all seas had been
trayersed by nayigators. aud that if
the maps of the continents were not
yet very exact at least their relative
positions and their general condgura-
ton we're known. Australia itself APP
pears on a French map OF 1912 under
the name of Great Java. In the
course of sixty years included in the
last decade of the fifteenth century
and the first half Of the sixteenth a
group OF navigators had advanced
geographic knowledge in a degree
that has never been reached in any
other period so short. Sebastian
d'Elano had made his first voyage
around the world Vaseo de CANA
had doubled the Cape of Good Hope !;
Christopher Columbus had added the
two Americas to the map; the voy-
ages of Cabot, of Magellan, had COM
pleted this wonderful list of new dis
coveries.
Today, outside of the Polar regions,
we must confess that all the seas have
been explored, but this is far from be-
ing the case with the land. An inn
mense extent is entirely unknown to
us; another, still more considerable.
has been only imperieetly explored /;
travellers have traversed it, commerce
has exploited some of its products, but
good maps of it don't exist. Finally,
only the least part of it is well known ;
geodesy has covered it with network
of triangles, and the maps of it are
complete even from a Typographical
standpoint.
After the two Polar regions, which
have remained inaccessible, Africa is
the part of the world of which we
have the least information. Notwith-
standing the general scramble among
European nations TO divide mp and
possess the land, they have only vague
idea of what the continent contains,
over $500, 600 square miles being yet
unexplored.
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
/ 1843. Since that time, at the price OF
great suffering, it has been crossed
from south to north, but no traveller
has yet traversed it from east to west.
While the North American CONT
nent Inns been very well explored, the
. whole central region of the southern
continent has not been mapped with
any degree of accuracy. Some por'
tions Of it have been roamed over by
men hunting for wood, mines ant
articles of commerce, but very little
is known of the interior OF the cont
nent.
To sum mp, the yet unexploret
parts of the globe cover an area o
about 1000, 900 square kilometor
(about 10000, 600 square miles), ap
proximately divided thus:--
Africa. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. g, 10000
\ Australia. ...................... ,000, 90
. America. ........................2,O O0, 90
s Asia ......................, 200, 90