The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1901-12-28
THE SEC 10 D In SIZE.
Balm Land Now Takes Rank Next
TO Gre enlands
An Island North OF Hudson Strait
That Haa Been Increasing IN 34.
Size ON the Maps-Has s0nae
Great Lakes. 5,9s

4 Excluding Australia, Bafin Land,
situated near the east coast Of the
American continent, short distance
north Of Hudson strait, is the second
island of the world in point OF size
and still little is known about it. It
( has long been represented on the
maps as composed OF number of
islands. It is still shown in this way
on number of maps now in use. One
by one these supposed islands, Cum
berlanu island, Fox Land, Meta In
cognita, Sussex island and Others
have been found to be a part Of the
main island; thus Bafin Land has
been gradually increasing in size on
the maps until to-day it is known to
be inferior only to Greenland in size.
The latest edition Of the best map of
the polar regions published in any
American atlas, however, still shows
Cockburn island, which is about as
large as Iceland, as separated from
Bafin Land by a wide channel, though
a number of foreign maps show that
it is a part Of Baffin Land.
DR.. Robert Bell, the new director
of the geological survey of Canada,
who mapped a long stretch Of the
west coast in 1897, has just published
in the Geographical Journal a, report
of his explorations. He says that it
is ''the third largest island in the
world, being only exceeded by Aus
tralia and Greenland" AS Australia is
now ranked by nearly all geographers
as the smallest of the continents,
Baffin Land will undoubtedly take it's
place among the islands as the second
in area. ~ 49, 1900
All the best maps of Bafinl 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 100 miles in length by
40 in breadth in the middle. Accord
ing to Eskimo accounts, Lake Amad-
juak discharges northward into Lake
Mettilling by a short river, without
rapids, the natives passing from one
lake to another in their. kayaks. Lake
: Mettilling is perhaps 40 miles long
and 60 miles wide and it's waters
reach the sea through a large and
rapid river, so or 60 miles long, that
mile. -, - z.~''~-.
The conspicuous honor of being the
largest island in the world has been
held by quite number of islands at
various stages of geographical knowl-
edge. School children were taught
for many years that Australia was
the largest island. Then Australia
came properly to be regarded as one
of the continental masses and Borneo
took it's place as the largest island.
Less than 30 years ago it was dis
covered that New Guinea was larger
than Borneo and so the latter island
took second place. When Peary prac-
tically outlined the northern coast of
Greenland, early in the last decade,
geographers began to think that they
had overlooked an important section
of the earth's surface and so they
placed Greenland at the head of the
list of islands. At last Baffin Land
looms up as an island 1905 statute
miles in length, with breadth vary
ing from 200 to 500 miles, the average
being 3O5 miles. It's area is 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 as large as
either Scotland OR Ireland. Though
it takes it's place as second in the list
of islands, Battin Land appears to be
of no great value, since it is COM
posed, as far as we know, of barren
rocks, partly covered with ice.
The 10 largest islands in the world
in order Of size are: Greenland, Bafin
Land, New Guinea, Borneo, Madagas-
car, Sumatra, Nippon (the largest is
land of Japan), Great Britain, Celebes,
New Zealand (South island), Java and
Cuba. - III