Daily camera., 1901-09-25
THE SECOND IN SIZE.
Bamn Land uow Takes Raak Next
~ b Greenland.
An lslanA NostA % auAson Strait
That HAs Deea IasRooslnG In
0tso - The 0aDs-l1as DOao
Great Lakes.


north Of Hudson strait, 10 the second
island Of the world In point OF siDe
and still little = known about it. It
has long bsen represented on the
maps a. composed of . number Of
islands. Il IL still shown In THE way
on = number Of maps now In use. One
by one these supposed islands, Cum
berlana island. Fox Land. Meta In
cognita, Sussex islsnd and others
have been found TO b part Of the
main Island; thus BafRn Land has
been gradually increasing in size on
the maps until to-day It 10 known TO
b inferior only 70 Greenland In siss.
The lstsst edition of the best map Of
tho polar regions Published In any
American atlas, however. still shows
Cockburn island. which 10 about ss
large a. Iceland. ~ separated from
Bafin Land BY . wide channel. though
. number Of foreign maps show that
II u . part Of Baflin Land.
DR.. Robert Bell. the new director
Of the geological survey Of Canada.
who mapped . long stretch Of the
west coast In 1897. has just published
In the Geographical journal . report
Of hia explorations. He says that It
II "the third largest island In the
world. being only exceeded BY Aus
tralia asd Greenland" A. Australia =
now ranked by nearly all gsogrsphsrs
a. the smallest Of the continents,
Baiiin Land will undoubtedly take it's
place among the islands - the second
In area.
All the best maps OF BAhin Land
now show . great lake region in the
central part Of the southern portion
of the island. These lakes lie be-
tween mountain ranges. DR.. Bell says
that the two greatest bodies OF water
are larger than any Of the lakes In
the whole peninsula Of Labrador and
that they may almost be compared to
Lake Ontario In extent He visited
the southernmost. Lake Amadjuak.
which may be i2o miles In length BY
40 in breadth In the middle. Accord
ing to Eskimo accounts, Lake Amad.
juak discharges northwsrd into Lake
Mettilling by . short river. without
rapids. the natives passing from one
lake to another In their kyaks- Lake
Nettilling u perhaps lao miles long
and 90 miles wide and Its waters
reach the 80 through . large and
rapid river. 50 or 90 miles long. that
has . descent Of about Ave lsst to the
mIis.
The conspicuous honor Of being the
lArgest island in the world has bssn
held by quite . number Of islsnds 81
various stages Of geographical knowl
edge. School children were taught
for many years that Australia WA
the largest island. Then Australia
came properly to b regarded as one
of the continental masses and Bornso
took Its place A. the largest Island.
Less than 20 yeArs ago 1t was dis
covered that New Guinea was larger
than Borneo and no the latter island
took second place. When Peary prae-
ticaliy outlined the northern eoest OF
Greenland. early in the last decade.
geographers began to think that they
had overlooked an important section
OF the earth's surface and 90 they
placed Greenland at the head Of the
list Of hlands. At last Bafin Land
looms up ss an island i,o0s statute
miles IN length. with . breadth vary
ing from 200 TO 500 miles. the average
being 30s miles. Its area 10 therefore
about 100000 square miles- In other
words, the island is larger than the
state OF Texas BY about 10000 square
miles or about ten times - large ~
either Scotland or Ireland. Though
II takes its place - second in the list
Of islands. Bafan Land appears 70 Be
Of NO great value. since it u com.
posed, ~ far as We know. OF barren
rocks. partly covered with Ice.
The II largest isiaads In the world
In order Of size are: Greenland, Bafnn
Land. New Guinea, Borneo, Nsdagas-
car. sumAtra. Nippon (ths largest is-
land Of Jspan). Great Britain, Celebes.
New Zealand (South islsnd). Java and