UNEXPLORED PARTS OF THE OLD WORLD. 685 



is still defective. Extensive geodetic and topographical surveys were 

 made in the principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia during the 

 war of 1877-'T8, but that the geography of Macedonia, Epirus, and 

 Thessaly is far from being exact is proved by the difficulties which 

 were experienced at the Conference of Berlin in defining the boun- 

 dary between Turkey and Greece. In Russia all the northern prov- 

 inces, from the frontier of Norway to the Ural Mountains, have been 

 explored only superficially, and the only well-traced lines are those of 

 the coasts and of the beds of the great rivers. The map of Lapland 

 is equally imperfect, the great tundra of the Samoieds is wholly 

 unexplored, and but little is known of the northern part of the Ural 

 Mountains, which is probably equally rich in minerals with the middle 

 division of the chain. From the Ural we pass to Nova Zembla, of 

 which the littoral only has so far been examined, but which is destined 

 to afford geologists an interesting study concerning its probable con- 

 nection with that chain and with the archipelago of Franz-Joseph 

 Land. 



The parts of Asia bordering on the Kara Sea and the Arctic Ocean 

 offer many points worthy of the attention of explorers. Among them 

 is the enormous tract belonging to the basins of the Khatanga and 

 Anabara, a country twice as large as France, concerning the geography 

 of which the voyages of Tchekanovsky and Nordenskjold have upset 

 our old ideas, and which are still only hypothetically represented on 

 our maps. The countries east of the Lena are wholly unknown, and 

 embrace very extensive regions that have never been visited by Eu- 

 ropeans. Wrangell has made a sketch of them from information sup- 

 plied by Siberian natives, but it can not be depended upon. The coun- 

 try of the Tchouktchis is superficially well known, thanks to the labors 

 01 Nordenskjold and previous explorers, but has never been scientifi- 

 cally examined. The extreme northeast peninsula north of the Gulf 

 of Anadir needs a thorough exploration of its interior, for it may be- 

 come important as a station for whalers, particularly if it should be 

 found to contain coal. The country of the Koriaks, a vast desert region 

 of hardly accessible mountains, traversed by no important river, offers 

 few attractions, but might be made to yield a rich harvest of new dis- 

 coveries to the naturalist. Kamchatka is better known, but it needs 

 an accurate survey. The geologist would find objects of interest in 

 its central chain of mountains and its active volcanoes ; the botanist 

 and zoologist, in its rich flora and fauna ; the landscape-painter, in its 

 majestic peaks with their summits vomiting fire and their slopes cov- 

 ered with magnificent forests; the ethnologist, in tracing the connection 

 between the native population and the people of the Kurile Islands on 

 the one side and of Northwestern America on the other, and in watch- 

 ing the development of a new mixed race, which has originated since 

 the Russians have settled in the country. On the other side of the 

 Sea of Okhotsk we find awaiting a competent explorer the northern 



