428 GEOGRAPHIC CONQUESTS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 



ing, commenced his explorations of the country between the Missis- 

 sippi and the Red River and discovered Pikes Peak in 1806. Bonne- 

 ville, in 1831-1S3S, explored sections of the Rocky Mountains and 

 California. Fremont, the most noted of American pioneers in the 

 West, in 1842 explored the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains and 

 in the following- years the Pacific slope. Powell, in 1869, traversed 

 the noble and menacing gorges of the (Irand Can^'on of the Colorado. 

 Meanwhile Whitney, Wheeler, and Havden were investigating the 

 mountain systems of the West. 



In Alaska, Dall was the pioneer and his work revealed the extent of 

 the Yukon. Kotzebue, the Russian na\'igator, fifty years before, in 

 1816, had coasted along tlic northwest coast of Alaska and discovered 

 the magnificent sound which now bears his name. Schwatka, Allen, 

 Abercr()m])ie, Brooks, and Schrader, and others, including gold pros- 

 pectors, have explored the terri- 

 toiy very rapidly until only a few 

 tracks remain unknown. In Can- 

 ada, DaAVson and Ogilvie have 

 worked in the Yukon watershed; 

 Bell and the Tyrrell ])rothers 

 around Hudson Bay. and Low in 

 Labrador. 



SOUTH AMERICA. 



Of the six continents Soutli 

 America is now the least known, 

 though one hundred years ago it 

 Avas better explored than an}' con- 

 tinent except Europe. The Jes- 

 uits had penetrated to the heart 

 of the continent on the rivers 

 which radiate in all directions 

 and had been able to pid^lish 

 tolera])h' good maps. But the 

 continual state of unrest and the 

 depleted treasuries of the South American governments, with the lack 

 of the incentive of trade and colonization, have kept them from keeping 

 pace with the geographic advance in other sections of the world. 



Humboldt, in 1799-1804, traveled in the basins of the Orinoco and 

 Magdalena and in various sections of the Andes. He was the first to 

 interpret the word '"geography-' in its original, truest, and broadest 

 sense, i. e., "description of the earth," which includes meteorology, 

 climatology, the distribution of animals and plants, and the nature of 

 soils, as well as the mere mapping of rivers and mountains. Later 

 his interpretation of the work of the geographer and explorer was 



Fig. 10. — South Aiuericii as kiii)\v]i in I'JOU. 



