The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-09-30

Many Parts Of the Globe Are Yet Term
Incognits to the Ctvilissd Man.
It is the very general supposition that
there is very little of the world we live
on that has not been explored by geog.
rapaers, and that the very little that yet
remains to investigate is on the African
continent. And yet the fact is that
about 10000, GOO square miles of the
earth's surface is yet terra incognita,
one-tenth of which is on our own con-
tinents of North and South America
The Cosmos, published in Paris, has
an article on this subject which gives
a synopsis of an address by Mr.. Lobley
before the London geographical con-
gress last month, that brings out this
interesting question very clearly.
Mr.. Lobby reminds us that, in the
first place, toward the middle Of the
sixteenth century all seas had beer
traversed by navigators, and that If the
maps of tAe continents were not yet very
exact at least their relative positions
and their general oonfguration were
known. Australia itself appears on
L IOllCu II16P Va 4SfS 0A1<AOA SAs( AdA1C W
Great Java In the course Of the sc
years included in the last decade of the
fifteenth century and the first half OF
the sixteenth a group of nevigators had
advanced geographic knowledge in q
degree that has never been reached in
any other period SO short. Sebastian
d'Elano had made his first voyage
around the world; vasco De CANA had
doubled the Cape Of Good Hope: Chris.
topher Columbus had added the tive
Americas to the map; the voyages oi
Cabot and Magellan had cempleted thia
wonderful list of new discoveries.
To-day, outside Of the polar regions
we must confess that all the eeas have
been explored, but this is far from being
the case with tho land. An immens<
extent is entirely unknown to US; an.
other, still more considerable, has been
only imperfectay explored; travellers
have travelled it, commerce las exploited
some of its products, but good maps Of
It do not exist. Finally. only the least
cart is wen known; geodssy has GOV.
cred it with network Of triangles, and
the maps Of it are complete even from z
Typographical standpoint.
After the two polar regions, which
have remained inaccessible, Africa Il
tne part Of the world Of which we have
+;i,e least information. Notwithftand.
ing the general scramble among Er.
ropean nations to divide up and posses,
the land. they have only vague idea Of
what the continent contains. over 6, 500,
coo square miles being yet uneKplored,
After Africa, Australia offers the
vastest field to the investigation Of ez-
plorers; We must remember that even
its seacoast was not fully explored till
1343. Since that time, at the price oil
great suffering, It has been crossed from
Douth to north, but no traveller has yct
traversed it from east to west.
While the North American continent
has been very well explored, the whole
central region Of the southern continent
has not been mapped with any degree
Of accuracy. Some portions Of it havt
been roamed over by men hurting fol-
wood, mines and articles Of commerce.
but little is known of the interior of the
continent.
To sum up, the yet unexplored parts
Of the globe cover an area Of about So.
Ooo, 900 square Hlomcters (about co.
600. 200 square niles). approximately Ii