The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1924-10-22

prepared by the National Geographic So
ciety, Washington. d. CO.
Adventurous souls sometimes de
plore the supposed fact that there ar,
no more worlds for exploration to con
quer. But unknown things behind til,
known ages-the unexplored and little
known regions of the earth-art
Leckoning with that same force thai
drove Lief Ericsson to America and
Vasco da Cana around the Cape o.
Good Hope and Captain Cook to the
sleepy, sur~v islands of the South Pa
cific.
On our own North American con-
tinent there are places on the map
which must necessarily remain prac-
tically blank, and many others whose
uncharted topographic features are the
products of vague reports and fertile
imagination. TO the east Of Hudson
bay lies a peninsula shaped like the
head of a woman, her high pompadour
towering off in the direction Of the
Arctic ocean. 1t remains as much an
enigma today as the eternal feminine
has the reputation of being. It's west
ward flowing rivers and a village or
two along It's outward fringes are
named, but its vast interior still offers
the lure Of hidden places. We call 1t
the Ungava peninsula. Numerous other
spaces on the Labrador peninsula are
practically unknown off the few beaten
trails.
The northern portion Of Keewatin
province, where the Arctic circle passes
between Hudson bay and the various
bays and inlets about the islands of
the Canadian Arctic, remains as I'M
lined by topographic symbols as a
baby's brow. From Great Slave lake
eastward to Dubawnt river and lake
and northward from Lake Athabasca,
there lies a vast area on which most
maps show rivers and lakes which
can only be outlined in the most n.y.
pothetical fashion.
One of the eight great river sys-
tens of the earth and the second |
creates system on the North Ameri-
can continent drains an area about
which we are almost entirely ignor-
ant. The geological survey Of Can
ada has been sending exploring par
ties into the Mackenzie river country, |
but the work has as yet been neces-
sarily confined to the principal water |
routes. The stories told by the Mac
Kenzie and Ogilvie ranges of noun
tains which feed the mighty stream
are closed books. There are about |
10000 square miles of water area in
the vicinity Of the river, much of
which Is still unexplored and I'M
mapped. Portions of the Canadian
Rockies in northern British Columbia
are so far as defiant In retaining their
secrets as the invincible Mt. Everest.
Sections of our own Alaska may still
.all with their awful silence as
strongly to the prospector and pioneer
Is the Yukon did in the days Of the
rush. The Endicott and
Davidson ranges rear indebted heads
lbove the surrounding fringe Of set
lements on the Arctic ocean and the
Yukon river.
Little Known Areas In States
In the United States proper there
ire no areas which can properly be
ermed "unexplored." There are, how
yer, numerous little-known areas
'erhaps traversed only once or twice
a our history, and there are many
reas which have not been surveyed.
bout a year ago 1t might have been
aid that the Clay Hills region of
Utah WAS unexplored,
ut party of the National Geograph-
ummer OF 1923. The Craters of the {
loon area in Idaho has been adequate
!, described only within the last two 6
r three years.
In northern Minnesota along the Ca
adian border line there Is a large J
rea dotted with lakes about which 9
ery little Is known. There are also
ttle-know, portions of New Mexico r
nd Arizon', particularly where these q
.ates Join ,he southeastern corner of c
tab In the San Juan country, near 1
le Chaco Canyon National monu-
tent upon which an expedition of +
le National Geographic society Is n
orking. T
There are sections of southern and o
,ntral Nevada which are very sparse p
populated; and through portions Of t
,rthern Wisconsin and Michigan one
ust travel with compass. News s
lpers have recently reported that an v
rial Photographic expedition is pre- n
lring to picture systematically the p
lympic peninsula of Washington. o
,rts OF which are inaccessible. a
Though most Of Mexico Ii well ] a