The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-01-31
BY PROF. ANGELO HEILPRIN.

ANCEllO
In briefly surveying the work that has
been accomplished by travellers during
the past II or IS months, and the field of
exploration that is left unfinished by
| these labors, 1t is made manifest that the
| planet which we inhabit is not yet fully
conquered. 1t is true that the sources OF
the Nile have no longer to be searched
after. and that the northwest and north
east passages. even if their discovery has
not led 10 that commercial success which
the ventures of a hundred years ago pos
sibly anticipated, find their records of
achievement in past history: but enough
| remains to add luster to the title of an
| explorer which need not be dimmed by
| the recollections of the triumphS OF Ross,
! Kane, D'Urville, Livingstone, Burton,
Barth, Spoke, Baker. or Stanley. Africa
still has its terra incO-nita, and so have
| Asia, Australia and South America theirs,
| and if these unknown lands are rapid
| " receding from the gaze of the pure
| geographer, they yet hold up service to
the scientist who follows in the path of
| the geographer, and to whom the world
is today looking for the highest class of
| information that is to be obtained.
WHAT EXPLORERS ARE SEARCHING
FOR.
1t is not vet two years ago that the
| scientific world was electrined by the
announcement of the discovery in the
tinct organism. which was stated to be
clearly intermediate in structure between
man and the ape, and II this So-lnterpret7
| ed missing link is still a somewhat doubt
| ful evolutionary factor in the minds of
| certain naturaliStS, it is yet of itself OF
| sufficient Importance to redirect the at
| tention of explorers to that class of work
| which has for all time made famous tray
! elers like Humboldt, Darwin and Wallace.
| To the heart of Africa we look for an
unlocking of some of the mysteries which
| still surround many of the more pro-
| found problems of animal life; in 1t and
Asia we search for the possible origina-
| ton or ancestry of man, of that of the
strange animals that today inhabit both
! continents and of those records of past
| changes in the history of the earth which
have shaped the destinies of the fauna
| of one-half of the globe. It is but few
| years ago that Australia revealed to the
| naturalist the most striking fact that had
| been gathered to the life history of an
| imals for perhaps century-the fact that
| two of its types of quadrupeds, the duck
| Dill and the wing hedgehog, as depart
ure from all other mammals, developed
| their young from laid eggs, in the man
| ner of birds and reptiles.
| What other secrets the continent still
holds is a matter for the future explorer
| to solve: and that it has many may be
assumed without question. In the south
ern extremity of South America, we
| search for that evidence which may ul-
| timately lead to the recognition of
| former continent of vast eXtent-battered
and fragmented today as the Antarctic
| Atlantis. and even in North America
we are still cropping after those facts
J which will permit us to definitely answer
! the question: Whence came the true
American people? and what was the ma
! ture of that civilization, represented by
| the ancient temples and other edificeS of
( Mexico and Central America, which so
earnestly appeals to lands beyond the
| Pacific for a possible solution of the
problems? However strongly ethnologists
may hold to individual or preconceived
notions, the candid mind will recognize
that these are questions still open.
NANSEN'S GREATEST CONTRIBU-
TION.
The most brilliant piece of recent ex-
ploration is unquestionably Nansen's he
rOic effort to reach the ..farthest north
if he has failed to reach the ultima thule
| of the explorer, to plant his flag upon the
| much-coveted north pole he has at least
| succeeded in arriving nearer to it by
some $50 miles than any previous voyager
| of the Arctic seas. How long the record
| of sc deg. IA min. will stand cannot be
| foretold, but there is reason to hope and
to believe. with the advances that have
! latterly been made in polar work and
! knowledge. and the activity which is be-
ing manifested in this field of inquiry
that it will be challenged and passed be-
! fore many years. Nansen's greatest con-
! tribution to geographical knowledge is
not the attaining of his high northern
! positiOn but the determination of the eX-
| istence of a profoundly deep sea (of some
! Il 600 to 10, 600 feet-in the far north, for it
! had been almost universally assumed by
geographers that the Arctic, basin was
| comparatively shallow one.
| OF one side only of Mr.. Peary'S brilliant
explorations it is sufficient to quote from
the last presidential address to the Royal
| C,eograDhicaI society of London. the
| words of Sir Clements Markham: 1T will
| be conceded that Lieut.. Peary's most re-
! markable journey over the Greenland ice
represents the finest and most important
! Diaca of Glacial work that has ever been
! performed From the same region of
| the far north we have. as the work of the
past two years, the annihllatlon OF me
| conception, strongly urged by the dis
| coverer of the land-mass in question, Jul
| Illus Payer. that Francis Joseph land was
, a vast area, with underlined boundarles'
| stretching in the direction of the pole
On the basis of this conception, the Jack
son-Harmsworth expedition laid the
course of their operations across this
! fragmented part sof the continent. only
to have it determined that Francis Joseph
land was an inconsiderable archipelago
! holding out advantage TO course TO
the north, and with only limited natural
resources for exploration of any kind
THE PROBLEM OF THE NIGER
SOLVED.
In the continent of Africa the hand of
the explorer. has not been idle; another
| of its main features has been sketched
out and the problem of the Niger solved
It is Just 100 years ago that Mungo
| travellers, then in his 18th year, set out
| to explore the course of what at that
time was assumed to be the second river
! of Africa Little or nothing was then
! known of the Congo, and scarcely more
| except in the immediate region OF its
multitudinous mouths, of the Niger itself
! Whether this river had a main course to
| the east or one from the west. was still
to be determined. After traverslng var
! ious kingdoms and undergoing numerous
! hardships and torments. not the least or
which was enforced captivity with the
native tribes. Park succeeded in reaching
! a portion of the upper course OF TINS
great African river to which ne was al
! recting his explorations. Nine years later
| in command of a second expedition, ne
| penetrated to the important commerclal
1 town of Bammalso. but the full measure
| untimely death by drowning, when TOOK
place in the kingdom of Sokoto. IN an ell
| fort to escaoe hostile pursuers.
! From that time to this Niger geogra-
| phv has been one Of the problems OF
! African exploration, and II II mas not
] the part of travellers as did the nam
| cuestion of the Nile-the discovery OF It's
ultimate source-it is because the region
| of exploration in West Africa is much
| more difficult one. Yet it is in connection
| with this work that the names or Lander,
| Clapperton, Laird. OVerWes anu bd par. II
| have been rendered famous EVERY sue
! cessive quarter of century has added
! Something to our knowledge or the gen
| oral course of this river. but, slngularly
/ enough up to the present year the work
| of exploration has not been Such as 10
make n continuous STUDY, ana secti .ls
of the intermediate" course OF the river
| have remained as unknown as though no
xvorl, had been conducted in the region
| before.