Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1924-10-22

known, there are some sections which
have not been accurately surveyed.
There are also jungles and mountains
in Central America about which little
is known. The San Bias country of
Panama, for instance, though Amer
lean airplanes have circled over it and
a few individuals have penetrated it,
holds secrets which are yet I'M
fathOmed.
The northeastern portion of Hon
duras, just behind the Mosquito coast,
must be left blank on maps of that
Central American republic, though
rumors concerning the mountains, for
ests and uncivilized Indians of the in
terror reach us from time to time.
South Americas Blank Regions.
South America has many square
miles of territory which is yet I'M
trodden by a white man. These in
clude large portions of western and
northwestern Brazil, the northwestern
portion of Bolivia, areas in southern
Argentina, and the Vaupes region in
Colombia. There are certain routes
elNAOSS lliOSl vi lIiCSC dIGdS WllICIl are
fairly well known, but as soon as enc
leaves the beaten trail he reaches ter
ritOry which has never been explored.
To the northwest of Paraguay be-
tween that country and Bolivia lies a
vast tract of land often spoken of as
the Paraguayan Chaco. 1t covers an
area of at least 100000 square miles,
and is believed to be constituted
mainly Of swamps and jungles. A few
merchants, who even today as they
were in the days of the Phoenicians,
are the pioneer explorers of distant
and little-known areas, are about the
only people who have ever visited the
interior of the ChGco, lured there be-
cause it is the home of the quebracho
tree, an important source of tannin.
The Oriente, the eastern portion of
Ecuador, is inhOspitable in its climate
and choked with jungle, and few are
the white men who have braved con-
tact with it's savage head-hunting ma
tives to tell us the natural resources
or even the physical features of this
uncharted hinterland.
The story of every part of Europe
is an open book, but Asia has its blank
spots about which one can still won
der Serene and invincible sit the
Himalayas as the backbone of Asia,
saving their snowslides and monsoons
for any presumptuous person who
tries to probe their secrets.
20
graphic society within the last two
or three years have been penetrating
portions of western China in Yunnan,
Szechuan and Kweichow provinces
about which nothing much was known
previous to this time A few other ex-
plorers have been vying with them in
putting these areas in detail on our
maps. kingdom Ward pushed from
southwestern China across Tibet and
northern India, outlining route which
had seldom been trod before.
Mongolia and the Cobb desert still
have their secrets, though they have
been revealing recently some of the
most remarkable remains of dinosaurs
and other prehistoric animals that
have ever been discovered.
Africa Dark in Spots.
Africa is still dark In spots. There
are great portions of the Sahara des-
ert about which practically nothing Is
known, notably the Hank region, ex-
tending from latitude % degrees
to 90 degrees near longitude 5
t. gnl, h.
tribes that the French, for quite a
while, have been trying to subdue. AS
a matter of fact, little is known about
the western Sahara or about the
southern and central portions of the
Libyan desert. Hassanein Bey, an
Egyptian explorer has within the last
year or two pushed his way across
a hitherto unknown portion of the
Libyan desert and placed upon our
maps two previously doubtful GASES
and given us interesting data con-
corning a prehistoric people who once
inhabited the hills about the GASES.
Much of the area to the west of the
Kufra oasis, which was explored by
Mrs. Rosita Forbes and Hassanien
Bey in 1921, still remains blank on
our maps. There are also several
places in the Belgian Congo where
the white man has never been.
One of the worlds widest of wild
spots is the interior of New Guinea,
where it is said that $4,000 square
miles of unexplored wilderness, peo-
pied by head-hunters. pigmies and
other tribes of chronological interest
are waiting for someone to come and
find them.