4 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



was Alexander von Humboldt, that the conviction became general 

 that the unknown, or imperfectly known, parts of the earth should be 

 thoroughly investigated, and scientific researches actively prosecuted 

 in respect to all phenomena coming under the general head of phys- 

 ical geography. This has, in fact, brought about, as I have said, a 

 geographical age. There are now scattered over the globe thirty-four 

 geographical societies, and, if we add other organizations devoted in 

 part to geographical inquiry or labors, the number would be augment- 

 ed to about fifty. Many of them are well endowed, large in point of 

 numbers, and strengthened not only by the cooperation of, but by an- 

 nual grants of money from, the governments of the countries in which 



they are situated. 



How thoroughly this spirit was aroused, will appear by a brief, 

 but necessarily imperfect, statement of what has been accomplished 

 since this movement began. 



When it commenced, the map of Africa was, with the exception of 

 the northwestern projection, above the Gulf of Guinea, and the Nile 

 region, almost a blank from the Mediterranean to the country in the 

 vicinity of the Cape of Good Hope. Of the 17,000,000 of square miles 

 in Asia, about 12,000,000 were either entirely unknown, or wholly cut 

 off from all intercourse with mankind. The condition of Australia, 

 with an area of 3,000,000 of square miles, is best expressed by quoting 

 the language of a geographer of that day. " A corner of this huge 

 mass of land," he says, "is all that is known." Twenty-five years ago 

 the European population of Australia was estimated at about 50,000 ; 

 it is now over 1,500,000, or thirty times as great. 



The second island in point of size, and one of the most fruitful in 

 the world, Papiia, or New Guinea, is referred to by the same geogra- 

 pher Murray, as almost a terra incognita, having generally, he then 

 said, " been viewed only by navigators from a distance ; " and in re- 

 spect to the next great island, Borneo, he puts the population of the 

 colonies there under the Dutch at about 9,000. In 1870 the popula- 

 tion of the Dutch colonies in Borneo was 189,253. The settled por- 

 tion of the United States then embraced 800,000 square miles, beyond 

 which was an area of 2,500,000 square miles inhabited by savages, 

 and almost unknown; for we knew little of it then beyond what was 

 known in the time of Jeiferson, with the exception of Major Long's 

 journey and Prof. Nicollet's exploration of the head-waters of the 

 Mississippi. 



This was the state of things at the beginning of the period re- 

 ferred to. I will now enumerate what has been done since, and espe- 

 cially within the last twenty-five years. 



In As/" : 1 he opening of the whole of China and Japan ; the acqui- 

 sition by the Uus^ians of nearly the whole of Toorkistan, and the in- 

 auguration of a policy on their part which, either by treaty or mili- 

 tary conquest, will throw open the whole of Northern Asia to the free 



