The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-12-13
STILL UNKNOWN
Thousands of Square
Miles of Territory.
Vast Tracts Waiting For Explorers
Many Islands In Pacific And
Atlantic.

While the population of the world is
increasing. while the history OF the
Christian era contains the details OF a
of discoveries Of new lands,
of colonizations, there are thousands
of square miles of territory remaining
almost undiscovered.
Much of this land lies almost in the
path of civilization and of commerce
The New York Tribune says that the
story of DIR. Sven Hedin's travels in I'M
known lands, as told by writer in
The Pittsburg Dispatch, doubtless as
tonished a great many people who i'm
agined that practically all Of the
earths surface is now known to clvlll-
cation. There was something strange
about the narrative. To speak of four
years travelling in unknown lands in
the heart of Asia seemed like a fairy
story. But it is nothing Of the kind.
DR.. Hedins story is altogether prob
able. and the field is still large in Asia,
and will be for many years to come.
Few people realize how much undis-
covered country there is still on the
globe. In spite of the efforts of Liv-
ingstone, Stanley, Baker, Vambery,
Andree and all the others, the oppor-
tunity for exploration is still extensive.
1t would not be extravagant to say that
at least 10000, 900 square miles of un-
claimed lands yet remain to be mapped
and described by the inquisitive travel
err. Though exploration is steadily in
progress in all quarters of the globe,
there is still a big field left, and many
dreaming school boy of the present
day will yet achieve fame among the
worlds map makers.
The traveller in Asia has yet to map
nearly 100000 square miles of that con-
tinent. In central parts we know moth
ing of cities, towns and races beyond
the extravagant yarns of native pill
grims. There may be peoples in these
interior countries unheard of by civili-
zation, as there are certainly geograp-
hical peculiarities of which we know
nothing.
The same may be said, and with con-
siderable more emphasis, of Africa,
North and South America, Australia
and the Pacific Islands. Millions of
square miles remain to be uncovered in
Africa, America and Australia, and not
year goes by but that some hitherto
unknown island of the Pacific is added
to the list, and many more remain.
Many a tourist in Europe this last
season has heard for the first time, as
he sailed past Gibraltar, that beyond
the range of mountains that extends
along the coast of Morocco there is a
land that has never been trOdden by
the explorer. The information seems
all the more strange when it is realized
that the most civilized people the world
has had have been sailing along this
same rock bound coast ever since the
days of the Phoenicians. Less than a
score of miles from the pathway of
civilization several thousand years old,
and yet unknown. 1t may be all the
more surprising to know that it is not
ten years since big lake was discov-
cred in the heart of the Pyrenees, the
mountain chain dividing Spain from
France, and in the heart of Europe, one
might say.
What do we know of Africa? Moth
ing but in a general way The explor-
ers have not gone far away from the
river courses. We can follow fairly
we'll on the map now the courses Of the
Congo and the Zambesi, and locate
approximately the long, mysterious
course of the Nile. But the geographers
have little or nothing with which to fill
up the white spaces in Central Africa.
Some travellers are gradually breaking
their way into the interior country,
and the next few years will yield many
valuable and interesting discoveries;
but the field is still large for those with
the ambition to travel in unknown
countries.
The most important work of the flu
ture African explorer will be to study
the various races and map out the hy-
geographic features. There are dozens
of native tribes presenting character
isticS interesting to the ethnologists.
We need more information than we
have of the tree jewellers of Shari the
dwarf tribes of the Congo. the Baluba
and the remarkable Bachilange, who
are already on the high road to civili-
zation
Examine the latest maps of Western
and Central Africa and you will see
great districts without a mark or sign
of the geographers. The great rivers
seem without tributary streams. This
is in no sense a popularity The tri-
butaries are there. Their absence from
the maps is the most effective presenta-
ton of the fact that they are not yet
out or explored. There is a
whole world Of UNEMPLOYED country to
the north, south, east and west of the
wonderful Congo.
1t is merely theory that these dis