Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1897-04-04

by Bcring Strait In the investigator ols-
covered the Northwest Passage-the VAN
dream of the merchants OF the sixteenth
century-but he found the Ice conditions
so severe that he had 10 abandon his snip
and return by one OF the vessels pursuing
tho Franklin search from the eastward.
In 1855 after the discovery of undoubted
relies Of the lost ships by DIR. Rae, the
British Government abandoned the
search: but the devotion OF Lazy FRANK
lin. and the determination OF the pubic
to discover fuller details, LED 10 the
splendid private expedition OF tne foN,
from 1867 TO 1859, in which Sir Leopold
McClintocs and Sir Allen Young eX-
pored nearly thousand miles oil new
coast-line under conditions OF the great
est difficulty. and discovered the only
document throwing light on FrahhHh
fate which has been found. IL proved
that TO Franklin first belonged the hohor
Of first discovering the famous North
west Passage.
HALL AND MARKHAM.
"In 1871, Captain Hall, in the American
steamer Polaris, entered Smiths SOUND
and reached the highest latitude so Yar at
tained-32 degrees 10 minutes, north. In the
following year an Hungarian ex-
petition under Payer and Weyprecht,
were carried by drift ice from Nova
LcIlDid ana UScONtItu "OoNA
Land, the remote region in which the
English explorer, Jackson, and his party
have been at work for the last three
years. The great British Government ex-
petition OF the Alerc and Discovery,
under Sir George Mares. penetrated
Smith Sound In 1875, and Commander "A.
II. Markham led a sledge party TO IS
degrees, 20 minutes, north. which re-
manned the highest observed latitude
until Lockwood, of Greely's American
expedition, reached SO degrees, "a minutes
north Of Greenland, In 1852. In 1SlS-19
the Swedish professor, Baron Norden-
skiold, accomplished the Northeast Pas
sage in the Vega, and circumnavigated
the Continent of Eurasia for the first
and only time. Peary. in three successive
years, made some Of the finest journeys
ever accomplished over the inland Ice
Of Northern Greenland. Great as these
achievements were, they have been eX-
celed by the scientifically-pianned expe-
dtion of Dr. Fridtjof Nansen in the
Fran. BY relinquishing the time-honored
plan of following coast-line, or
fighting against drifting icefoes, and al
lowing the moving ice Of the Polar basin
to carry his ship, he succeeded in drift
ing from near the New Siberian Islands
TO Spitzbergen, across an absolutely I'M
with his companion, Johanson, he
reached SO degrees, IA minutes, in 1888,
an advance of nearly two hundred miles
on the farthest north ever made before,
and his expedition in its safety, success,
and exact conformity 10 the plans pre-
viously laid down, must be looked on as
the elimination Of Arctic travel in the
Victorian era.
Whether the Antarctic regions are to
yield their secrets In this century or IN
this reign is extremely doubtful. Sir James
Clark Ross led his great expedition round
the southern ice in 1884, and left the names
of his ships, Erebus and Terror, on the
lonely volcanoes that no human eye has
see looked upon. The Challenger, in the
course of her voyage thirty years later,
lust crossed the border of the Antarctic
area, and but for the visits of whalers
from Scotland and Norway during the
last four years. there has been no farther
advance. At this moment several Antarc-
tic expeditions are talked OF, and one
IS announced as ready to sail from Bel
GUM in July, 1897. The field before it is
wide.
Next to the Polar areas Africa is the
region in which the explorations OF the
last sixty years have led to the most
striking advances of knowledge. In 1891
this truly deserved its name. Dark Con-
l.,
coast line. the Lower Nile and Abyssinia,
a few tracks across the Sahara, the River
Niger. portion Of the Zambesi. and a
small area north OF the Cape of Good
Hone The fanciful detail OF interlacing
lake and river systems had been cleared
away by DAnville a century before, ana
the map stood swept almost bare, gar
nished only with the newly-traced Niger,
and the hypothetical chain of the Noun
- from
Guinea to the Indian Ocean. The trade
of centuries on the west coast had led TO
no explorations worthy Of the name, and
IL was not until the missionary travels OF
Dr. David Livingstone. I'm the ffties, that
any real interest was evinced in the Con-
tinent as q whole
AFRICAN DISCOVERY.
GAS a pioneer of African discovery, Liv-
ingstone may be looked upon as the ini-
tiator Of the modern period. and in his
methods Of work and his treatment or
natives he remains a model for all time.
His discovery Of Lake Nyassa in 1883,
Burton's discovery of Tanganyika in 1888,
Spekes of the Victoria NyanZa In 1883,
and Bakers of the Albert Nyanza in 1867
threw open the great lake region Of East
Africa along its whole length and the
main lines of the geography Of the eastern
strip Of Africa under the rule Of the Sui
tan Of Zanzibar, were quickly laid down
by an increasing number OF explorers.
"The sources Of the Nile have exercised
a fascination for travellers in Africa Ike
that OF the search for the Northwest Pas
sage. or the North Pole, for Arctic voy-
ayers and in pursuit Of these sources
Livingstone was tracing the great river
Lualaba, which flowed northward west OF
Lake Tanganyike. TO its source in Lake
| Bangweolo, when death overlook him In
1873. Believing that his great river was
the Nile. he could not yet resist the sus-
picion that IT might, after all, turn out
TO be the Congo. This supposition was
turned into certainty by Mr.. II. Nj. STAN
ley's magnificent journey of 1871, when he
traced the Inalaba round its great equa-
torial bend. and opened up the vast water
way from Stanley Falls TO Stanley Pool
on his way TO the sea. Cameron had be-
fore made a crossing of Tropical Africa
farther south, but no journey In Africa
has been so fateful as that Of Stanley
down the Congo. 1t led TO the foundation
of the Congo Free State, and the opening
I'D of the whole great river to steamer
traffic. affording a base from which the
northern and southern tributaries could
be explored to their sources.
I'm 1884 commenced the scramble OF the
European Powers for African possessions,
and the resulting partition OF the coast
into spheres of influence, whence the eN-
plorers OF each nationality pushed inland
In the effort to secure the Hinterland and
command the sources OF internal trade.
The remotest deserts of the Sahara, iso-
lated parts Of the equatorial forests. and
portion OF Somaliland, are the only re-
gions now remaining entirely unknown.
OUT IN ASIA.
Turning to the vast continent or Asia,
- ~. 81, f,,a.- for