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

prepared by the National Geographic So
ciety, Washington, d. c.
Adventurous souls sometimes de-
plore the supposed fact that there are
no more worlds for exploration to con-
quer. But unknown things behind the
known ages-the unexplored and little
known regions of the earth-are
keckoning with that same force that
drove Lief Ericsson to America and
Vasco da Cana around the Cape OF
Good Hope and Captain Cook to the
sleepy sunny 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 a 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 it
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
greatest 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
call with their awful silence as
strongly to the prospector and pioneer
as the Yukon did in the days Of the
Klondlke rush. The Endicott ard
Davidson ranges rear undefiled heads
above the surrounding fringe Of set
Elements on the Arctic ocean and the
Yukon river.
Little Known Areas in States.
In the United States proper there
are no areas which can properly be
termed "unexplored." There are, how
ever, numerous little-known areas
perhaps traversed only once or twice
in our history, and there are many
areas which have not been surveyed.
About a year ago it might have been
said that the Clay Hills region of
southeastern Utah was UNEMPLOYED
but party of the National Geograph-
&c society did work in the area in the
summer of 1923. The Craters of the
Moon area In Idaho has been adequate
ly described only within the last two
or three years.
Ln northern Minnesota along the Ca
madam border line there is a large
area dotted with lakes about which
very little is known. There are also
little-known portions of New Mexico
and Arizona, particularly where these
states join the southeastern corner of
Utah in the San Juan country, near
the Chaco Canyon National monu-
nent upon which an expedition Of
the National Geographic society is
working.
There are sections of southern and
central Nevada which are very sparse
ly populated; and through portions of
northern Wisconsin and Michigan one
must travel with a compass. News
papers have recently reported that an
aerial Photographic expedition is pre-
pairing to picture Systematically the
Olympic peninsula of Washington,
parts of which are inaccessible.