The Meeker herald., 1901-11-16

Excluding Australia, Bafiin Land, alt
uated near the east coast Of the Ameri-
can continent, short distance north OF
Hudson strait, Is the second island o.
the world in point Of size, and still 1T
tie 10 known about 1t. 1t has long been
represented on the maps as composed
Of . number of Islands. 1t " still
shown In this way on number OF
maps now in use. One by one these
supposed Islands, Cumberland Island,
Fox Land, Meta Incognita, Sussex
island and others have been found to ne
a part OF the main island: thus Bahin
Land has been gradually increadng in
size ON the maps until to-day 1t -
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 II about
as large rs Iceland. as separated from
Bafiin Land by wide channel, though
number of foreign maps show that
It is part of Bafin Land.
DIR. 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 his
eAploEdtlOus. 11C 0hye thot ~ 70 eAo
third largest island In the world, being
only exceeded by Australia and Green
land" As Australia Is now ranked by
nearly all geographers as the smallest
Of the continents, Baffin Land will I'M
doubtedly take its place among the
islands as the second in area.
All the best maps Of Baffin Land now
show a great lake region In the central
part Of the southern portion of the
island. These lakes lie between noun
tain ranges. DIR. 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 On
tario in extent. He visited the south
ernmost, Lake Amndjuak, which may
be 120 miles in length by forty In
breadth In the middle. According to
Eskimo accounts, Lake Amadjuak dis
charges northward into Lake Mettil-
ling by a short river, without rapids,
the natives passing from one lake to
another IA their kayaks. Lake Mettil.
| ling is perhaps 40 miles long and sixty
miles wide, and Its waters reach the
sea through large and rapid river,
| fifty or sixty miles long, that has de-
scent of about five feet to the mile.
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 itr
| place as the largest island.
tha n voor - % ~ ~nn
discovered that New Guinea was larger
I than Borheo, ana 10 the latter island
! took second place. When Peary prac
i 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 80 they placed
Greenland at the head of the list of
islands. At last Baffin Land looms pp
as an island 1,O05 statute miles in
length, with breadth varying from
eco to 800 miles, the average being 3O5
miles. Its area is therefore about 300.
600 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 Its place as
second In the list of islands, Raffin
Land appears to be of no great value,
since 1t is composed, as far as we
know, Of barren rocks, partly covered
with ice.
The twelve largest islands in the
world In order of size, are: Greenland,
Baffin Land, New Guinea, Borneo.
Madagascar, Sumatra, Nippon (the
largest island of Japan. Great Britain,
Celebes. New Zealand South island),
Java and Cuba.