Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1898-10-05
THE UNEMPLOYED CONTINENT.
Not Africa, but South America, Should
Re Called the Ozark Continent"

he Called the ozark Continent
Africa is no longer the Dark Cont
nent. Explorers have gridironed IL
with their routes. Probably no geo
graphical question of the first import
ance remains to be settled there. In
Its most important aspects Africa Is
now revealed, and It's study in detail
will be the work of the next century
1t is in South America and Antarctica
that the largest explorations OF the III
ture will be made. OF the great lano
masses, South America Is the least
known and offers the greatest prizes to
exploration.
All that part of Colombia lying east
of the Cordileras, n region as large as
Texas. is almost wholly unknown ex-
cept along the courses of four or five OF
the larger rivers which were mapped
by Creyaux and other explorers. with
only one or two exceptions, the many
tributaries of these large streams, II
they are indicated Oh the maps, are
marked In broken lines to show that
they have not been surveyed. The
names of few of the Indian tribes
and towns. and some inkling of minor
mountain ranges seen from the ex
plored rivers, are all we know OF the
large white spaces on the maps OF
Eastern Colombia
Not third of Brazil, country as
large as our own, Is even fairly well
known away from the large tributaries
of the Amazon: and even the BEST
known and most populous part OF the
country, East Brazil, was shown on
the maps with glarlng inaccuracy not
more than ten years ago. \ number or
long mountain ranges were depicted on
all maps for number of years, though
there are no such ranges. Some OF the
large rivers have cut their valleys deep
ly and the high bluffs were represent
ed as mountains. There are districts
thousands miles square, between
the Amazon tributaries. both north and
south of that river. of whose geography
not the slightest detail has come TO
light. The eastern parts of Ecuador,
Peru and Bolivia, east Of the Cordii.
leras, are very little known. 1t Is. cor
rect. In the main, to say that between
Venezuela and Argentina all inner
South America has been explored only
along It's more important watercourses
and that the still unvsted regions In
Brazil stretch two-thirds of the way
across the continent in Its widest part.
No one knows when survey OF the
Andes will be carried out, but certainly
many years will elapse before fairly
detailed map of these great mountain
chains will be possible. The indefati-
gable labors of Il German explorer with
In the last few years have revealed
about fifty passes through the noun
tans which had never been mapped.
The sources of many rivers flowing in
to the Pacific are not known, though
they are undoubtedly among the noun
tans not more than 100 to 200 miles
from the coast. The recent boundary
dispute between Chile and Argentina
was due largely to the fact that the
crest of the mountain range In that
latitude Is further west than was sup
posed, and Chile thought herself emit
tied to wider territory than she could
have II she accepted that line as
boundary.
A few years ago the late Captain
Page. an American, settled an interest
Ing question In South American geog-
raphy, and there are not few others
of equal Importance that remain TO be
solved. His work blasted the hopes OF
Bolivia that she might find water
outlet to the Atlantic by way of the
Pilcomayo River, which rises among
the mountains and flows southeast to
the broad PARMA Captain Page was
employed to ascend the Pilcomayo on
small steamer, through the hostile In
dian country, and endeavor TO reach
Bolivia. He steamed far up the river,
until AT last his keel stuck fast on the
bottom of the channel Then he built
a dam across the river behind his YES
sci. and the accumulated waters ena-
bled him to go on few miles. He re-
peated this process six times, and his
seven dams added thlrty-tye miles to
the distance his vessel made, BY that
time Captain Page was convinced that
the Pllcomayo was not available as an
outlet for Bolivia's produce.
Let European explorers discover
continent at the South Pole II they can.
Americans will do we'll to complete the
exploration Of the Americas
York Sun.
Mother Elephants Sense.