August 1, 1895.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



187 



Our walk home was none too pleasant, for it rained 

 heanly the whole way, and we arrived at our quarters 

 about 10 p.m., soaked to the skin, footsore, and ravenously 

 hungry, but with a lively sense of the manifold interests 

 of a Scotch moor. 



THE EXPLORATION OF THE SURFACE OF 

 THE GLOBE. 



By Prof. J. LoGAx Lobley, F.G.S. 



THE meeting of the sixth International Geographical 

 Congress in London compels attention to the 

 great subject of the exploration of the surface of 

 the globe, and to the progress that has been made 

 towards its completion. An estimate, therefore, 

 of the area yet unexplored may prove of interest to the 

 readers of Kno^'ledge. 



During the sixty years comprising the last decade of 

 the fifteenth and the first half of the sixteenth centm7, 

 the greater portion of the earth's surface was made known 

 to mankind. It was during these years that Sebastian 

 d'Elcano first circumnavigated the globe ; that Vasco de 

 Gama first doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and that the 

 two Americas were added to the map of the world by the 

 voyages of Columbus, the two Cabots, and Magellan. 

 Australia, too, then first appeared in European maps, for 

 in a French chart of 1542 we find the island-continent 

 included under the name of " Jave la Grand." 



Since the middle of the sixteenth century every sea, 

 except those within the Arctic and Antarctic Circles, has 

 been traversed in all directions, and very many islands, 

 large and small, have been discovered. We are justified, 

 therefore, in assuming that all the land areas of the globe 

 are known in position and extent, with the exception of 

 what may be hidden behind the northern and southern 

 ice. But although the position and extent of practically 

 all the land areas of the globe are known, regions of vast 

 extent remain unexplored, and an immense aggregate 

 area, though generally known and mapped, has not yet 

 been explored in detail, much less accurately surveyed. 

 Moreover, there are extensive regions which, although 

 they have been mapped in considerable detail, require 

 much more careful exploration than they have yet received 

 before entirely rehable maps of their surface features can 

 be produced. 



Of the altogether unexplored regions of continental land 

 undoubtedly the largest aggregate area is still in the 

 African continent, notwithstanding the gigantic strides 

 exploration there has made during the present century, 

 and especially during its latter half. African explorers, 

 from Bruce and Muugo Park down to Livingstone and 

 Stanley, and tbose still in the field, have gradually changed 

 the map of Africa from what was little more than the 

 outline of a great continent to an area largely chequered 

 with detail. The latest exploration of the heart of Africa 

 was made so recently as last year by Count Gotzen, who 

 crossed the continent from Pangani, on the eastern coast, 

 to Kirmeder, south of Stanley Falls on the Congo, by 

 which river he reached the western coast. This journey 

 has given to geography the lake Umburre, five crater 

 lakes, and the volcano Kirmega Lchagongo, besides much 

 valuable information respecting the country traversed and 

 its inhabitants. 



The unexplored parts of Africa form an aggregate area, 

 however, very far exceeding that explored, while the well- 

 surveyed area of the continent is but a small proportion of 

 the whole. The regions unexplored comprise : — 



1. The immense area of North Africa usually called the 

 Sahara, or Great, or Libyan, Desert, lying between lat. 

 80° N. and lat. 15° N., and long. 30° E. and long 15° W., 

 and having an area of upwards of three millions of square 

 miles. 



2. An area of at least a quarter of a million of square 

 miles north of the Gold Coast. 



3. The eastern spur of the continent comprising SomaU 

 Land and GaUia Land, and containing fuUy three-quarters 

 of a million of square miles. 



4. The great central interior region extending from 

 10° N. lat. to 25° S. lat., and spreading eastwards from 

 near the Atlantic coast to 25° E. long, and to 30^ E. long, 

 in its northern part. Though this great region has been 

 repeatedly crossed, and the Congo and adjacent districts 

 to some extent explored, yet there must be still two 

 and a half millions of square mUes of quite unexplored 

 lands. 



Thus we find that out of eleven million square miles, the 

 whole area of the continent, at least six million five hundred 

 thousand square miles remain unexplored. 



Of the greater part of the remainder of Africa it can 

 only be said that its chief physical features are known as 

 the result of very incomplete exploration. Even the known 

 and settled regions of South Africa have not to a great 

 extent been surveyed by a geodetic triangulation, the 

 necessity for which has been well pointed out by General 

 E. F. Chapman, of the War OfBce, in a recent letter to 

 the President of the Royal Geographical Society. He 

 writes, in urging the subject as one requiring the attention 

 of the International Congress : — "It appears to me that, 

 great as has been the development of political and com- 

 mercial interests in Africa during the past decade, our 

 knowledge of the topography of the interior of the country 

 has not made an advance by any means as important, and 

 that there are large portions of that continent of which no 

 accurate maps exist, although they have been for years 

 under a civilized administration and occupied by settlers 

 of European descent." 



Although Australia was known as a large island in 1542, 

 it was not until 1843 that the exploration of the entire 

 coast was completed by the " Beagle " expedition, made so 

 famous by the illustrious Darwin, and only about thirty 

 years have elapsed since Stuart and the ill-fated Burke and 

 Wills first traversed the area from south to north, while 

 it has not yet been crossed from the eastern to the western 

 shore. It may, therefore, be said that, with the exception 

 of areas near the coast, the great interior remains unex- 

 plored, or only known along a few route hues. This area 

 cannot be less than two and a quarter millions of square 

 miles. 



In a general sense, Asia as a whole has been explored, 

 and yet there are vast regions in which the exploration 

 has only proceeded far enough to give a knowledge of the 

 more conspicuous physical features. This applies to the 

 great bulk of Central and Northern Asia between lat. 

 40° N. and lat. 70° N., and long. 125° E. and long. 70° 

 E., giving an area of at least five millions of square miles. 

 North of the seventieth parallel there are about a quarter 

 of a million square miles of unexplored lands. 



America, both North and South, except the far north of 

 North America and the narrow southern part of South 

 America, may also be said to have been explored ; but, as 

 in Asia, there are vast regions of which only the larger 

 features have received any attention. The exploring 

 journey of Mr. F. Eussell, of Ohio University (1892-4) 

 from Lake Winnipeg by Lake Athabasca and Great Slave 

 Lake to the Musk Ox Hills, near Bathurst Inlet, and back 

 to Fort Providence by the Mackenzie Kiver, has shown not 



