INDUISTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1873. Ivii 



by civilized man, constituting in all about one-seventeenth 

 part of the globe. Of these the greatest is the antarctic re- 

 gion, the next that about the north pole, the third is in Cen- 

 tral Africa, and the fourth in Western Australia. To the 

 south polar region the nearest approach was made by Ross 

 in 1842, in latitude 78 10', south of Xew Zealand, while the 

 nearest to the north pole w^as by Captain Hall, in 82 16'. 

 The unexplored portion of Africa reaches on the west very 

 closely to the coast, that near the equator having been driv- 

 en inland by Du Chaillu and Walker. The expedition un- 

 der Lieutenant Grandy will probably successfully pierce the 

 centre of this portion. In Australia the unknown area lies 

 to the west of the tract explored from south to north by Stu- 

 art in 18G1. The combined areas of uninvestigated regions, 

 according to the writer referred to, amount to over eleven 

 and a half millions of square miles. 



In proceeding to consider the special explorations made in 

 the different parts of the world, we begin with those of the 

 ocean in general ; and of these the most notable is that of the 

 Challenger^ of which a detailed account will be found on page 

 243. We may mention, however, briefly, that this steamer of 

 2300 tons, fitted out with every means for scientific research, 

 under Captain Nares, and with Professor Wy ville Thomson as 

 scientific director, left Portsmouth on the 21st of December, 

 1872, and after entering the Mediterranean, and making some 

 masinetic observations there, sailed thence for Madeira and 

 TeneriflTe ; after which she proceeded to Sombrero in the West 

 Indies, and to St. Thomas. On the 24th of March she left 

 St. Thomas for Bermuda ; from this island to a point off the 

 American coast, near New York, and thence to Halifax. 

 From Halifax she went back again to Bermuda, and from 

 Bermuda to the Azores ; from the Azores to Madeira, and 

 from Madeira to the Cape Yerde Islands, which she left on 

 the 27th of July for Bahia in Brazil; thence proceeding, by 

 way of Tristan d'Acunha, to the Cape of Good Hope, where 

 she arrived safely. 



The results of this expedition, so fiir, have been of great 

 service in establishino; the true contour of the Atlantic sea- 

 bed, in determining points of temperature and currents, and 

 in brincjino; to lisrht vast numbers of new and interestins; an- 

 imal forms. 



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