The Lamar register., 1901-11-13

Excluding Australia. Baffin Land, sit
uated near the east coast of the Ameri-
can continent, Il short distance north of
Hudson strait, is the second island of
the world in point of size, and still lit
tie is known about it. 1t has long been
represented OH the maps as composed
of number of islands. 1t is still
shown in this way on Il 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 be
part of the main island; thus Batfin
Land has been gradually increasing in
size on the maps until to-day 1t 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
Bafiin Land by Il wide channel, though
II number of foreign maps show that
it is n part of Batfin 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 n report of his
explorations. He says that 1t Is "thc
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, Bafiin Land will un-
doubtedly take its place among the
islands as the second in area.
All the best maps of Batfin Land now
show n great lake region in the central
part of the southern portion of the
iyIn J., In lilo. hnt M
tain 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 On
tario In extent. He visited the south
ernmost Lake Amadjuak, which may
be 100 miles in length by forty in
breadth in the middle. According to
Eskimo accounts. Lake Amadjuali dis
| charges northwnrd into Lake Mettil-
ling by short river, without rapids.
the natives passing frpm one lake to
| another in their kyaks. Lake Mettil-
ling is perhaps 40 miles long and sixty
| miles wide, and its waters reach the
| sea through II 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 n number of islands ut
various stages of geographical knowl-
edge. School children We're 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 its
place as the largest island.
Less than twenty years ago 1t was
discovered 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 enrth's surface. and so they placed
Greenland ut the head of the list of
| islands. AT last Batiin Land looms up
as an island 1,0O5 statute miles in
| length with n breadth varying from
200 to 800 miles. the average being 3Oj
| miles. Its area Is therefore about 3OO-
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 rs either Scotland or
| Ireland. Though it takes its place as
second in the list of islands, Bafiin
Land appears to be of no great value.
since it 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
Batlin Land, New Guinea, Borneo.
Madagascar, Sumatra. Nippon (thc
largest island of Japan. Great Britain,
Celebes, New Zealand (South islandD,
Java and Cuba.