, 1901-10-04
THE c ISLAND.
BAFFIN LAND RANKS SECOND IN
SIZE IN WORLD.
Late Maps Show n Great Lake Region
in the southern Part OF the Island
Lake tmadjuak Is About IpO Miles
Long.

Excluding Australia. Batiin Land,
situated near the east coast of the
American continent. "A short distance
north of HUDSON strait. is the second
island of the world in point of size and
still little is known about it. 1t has
long been represented on the maps as
composed OF a number of islands. 1t
is still shown in this way on a num-
her of maps now in use. One by one
these supposed islands, Cumberland
island. Fox Land. Meta Incognita, Sus-
sex island and others have been found
to be a part of the main island: thus
Bat1n Land has been gradually in
cfeaslng in size on the maps until to-
day 1t is known to he inferior only to
Greenland in size. The latest edition
OF the best map of the polar regions
punished in any American atlas. how
ever. still shows Cockburn island,
which is separated from Baffin Land
by a wide channel. though a number
OF foreign maps show that it is a part
OF Balm Land. DR.. Robert Bell, the
new director of the geological survey
ul 'ahada, who mapped a long stretch
oil the west coast in 1897. has just pub
ilshed IN the Geographical journal a
report or his explorations. He says
that II is the third largest island in
the world. being only exceeded by Aus
tralia and Greenland" As Australia
Is now ranked by nearly all geogsaph-
ers as the smallest Of Tic continents.
Balm Land will undoubtedly take its
place among the Stands as the second
IN area. All the best maps of Bahin
Land now show a great lake region in
the central part of the southern pOr-
ton of the island. These lakes lie be-
tween mountain ranges. Dr.. Bell saws
that the two greatest bodies of water
are larger than any of the lakes ia the
whole peninsula of Labrador and that
they may almost be compared to
Lake ontario in extent. He visited the
fouthernmOst. Lake Amadjuak. which
may be l2O miles in length by forty In
breadth in the middle. According to
Eskimo accounts. Lake Amadjuak dis
charges ~northward into Lake Mettill-
ing by a short river, without rapids,
the natives passing from one lake to
another in their kayaks. Lake Mettill-
ing is perhaps 140 miles long and sixty
miles wide and its waters reach the
sea through a large and rapid river.
fifty or sixty miles long. that has a
descent OF about i've feet to the mile.
The conspicuous honor of being the
largest island in the world has been
held by quite a 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 its
place as the largest island. Less than
twenty years ago il was discovered
that New Guinea was larger than Bor-
neo and 50 the latter island ooh sec
ond place. When Peary practically
outlined the northern coast of Green
land, 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
''ohho up DIS an lSIdllu l,vbo stdlute
miles in length. with a breadth vary
ing from 200 to 500 miles. the aver
age being 305 miles. Its area is there
fore about 300. 900 square miles. In
other words. the island is larger than
the state of Texas by about 40, 900
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. Batfin Land ap-
pears to be of nc 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: Green
land, Baffin Land. New Guinea, Bor-
neo, Madagascar. Sumatra, Nippon
(the largest island of Ja AM. Great
Britain, Celebes. New Zealand (South
island), Java and Cuba.-Chicago
| rbrppirIa