Fig. S.— North America as knowai in l.soo. 



GEOGRAPHIC CONQUESTS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 427 



Leichardt succe.s.sfull}' cipssed Australia diagonalh' from Port Essiug- 

 ton to Moretoii Bay, but on his .second expedition, in 184.S. he nivste- 

 riously disappeared in the sandy 

 deserts of the northeast and 

 numerous search parties have 

 failed to tind any trace of him. 

 Overland routes have now 

 been found possible Ijetween all 

 the widely separated colonies, 

 though they are scarceh' con- 

 venient for traffic. The explo- 

 rations of more recent 3"ears 

 have shown that wide areas of 

 splendid grazing- land surroiuid 

 the deserts. 



NORTH AMERICA. 



Of the geographical conquests 

 of the nineteenth centur}^ the 

 most marvelous has been the 

 conquest of North America, 

 more particularly of the west- 

 ern United States. It has been the work not so much of the geograplier 

 or explorer, as of the colonist ai d the miner, made possible by Yankee 



inventions that economize space, 

 time, and money. 



In 1801 the continent west of 

 the Mississippi was unknown, 

 the existence of the Rocky 

 Mountains unsuspected. The 

 atlases of the time describe 

 North America as ''chiefly com- 

 posed of gentle ascents or level 

 plains.'' They knew of "no 

 considera))k^ mountains except 

 those toward the Pole and that 

 long ridge which runs through 

 the American States and is 

 called the Appalachian or Alle- 

 ghany Mountains.'' Lnmedi- 

 ately after the Louisiana Pur- 

 chase Lewis and Clarke were 

 dispatched to the new land to 

 explore it, and they made their 

 historic march up the vallev of the Missouri River, across the Rocky 

 Mountains, and down the Columbia to the sea. Pike, the year follow- 



Fig. 9.— North America as known in I'JUO. 



