Advances in Geographic Knowledge 145 



pleted the circumnavigation of Asia in 

 1879. 



Within the Antarctic circle, to the 

 south of Patagonia, Pahner, BelHng- 

 hausen, Biscoe, Larsen, and Gerlache 

 discovered Pahner L,and and adjacent 

 islands. To the south of New Zealand 

 Belleny found islands, and James C. Ross 

 added to his arctic laurels by discovering 

 ice-clad Victoria Land, with its flaming 

 volcanoes, and in locating the south mag- 

 netic pole. South of Kerguelen is the 

 Enderby Land of Biscoe, while south- 

 east of Tasmania an archipelago of des- 

 olate islands, located by Wilkes and 

 D'Urville, marks the northern limit of 

 ice-clad Antarctica. 



EXPLORATION OF AUSTRALIA 



The greatest southern confederacy, 

 Australia, has a European population 

 exceeding five millions; but in 1800 

 its two thousand settlers did not even 

 have a countr}^ with a recognized name. 

 As New Holland, it appeared on the 

 best maps, a featureless central area, 

 with its outlined coast largely con- 

 jectural. Surveys of the coast, begun 

 by Bass and Flinders, were finished by 

 King, 1822 ; Wickham and Stokes, 

 1 837-' 43. Inland, Hughes solved the 

 hydrographic problem of the Murray 

 watershed, Eyre traced the south coast 

 along the Great Australian Bight. The 

 central desert was made known by 

 Mitchell and Sturt, while Grey and 

 Gregory explored in the northwest and 

 Leichardt and Kennedy in the northeast. 

 The most fruitful journey was that of 

 Stuart, i858-'62, from the inhabited 

 south coast to the extreme north, which 

 opened a fertile, well-watered district to 

 colonization. The western desert has 

 been explored here and there by Forrest, 

 Warburton, and Giles, the last named 

 having twice traversed the great Sahara, 

 east and west. 



New Zealand first came to our knowl- 

 edge by missionary labors, i8i4-'30, 



and later by commercial extensions and 

 gold-hunting. New Guinea has been 

 explored in the last half centur\^ by 

 Wallace, Meyer, Forbes, Von Schleinitz, 

 and Dallmann. 



OPENING UP SOUTH AMERICA 



Of the Americas, the longest known 

 is least explored. South i\merica, how- 

 ever, was fortunate in the beginning of 

 the century, 1799- 1804, with such in- 

 vestigators as Humboldt and Bonpland, 

 who traversed Venezuela, determined 

 the remarkable bifurcation of the Ori- 

 noco, visited Magdalena, Quito, and the 

 volcanoes. This journey was not only 

 locally important, for it gave an extra- 

 ordinary impulse to the comprehensive 

 study of the earth. Von Eschwege, 

 Von Wied, Saint-Hillaire, Spix, and 

 Martius explored the interior of Brazil 

 from the Amazon Basin ; D'Orbign}^ 

 and Castelnau devoted themselves to the 

 geography of the central regions be- 

 tween the Rio de la Plata and the Ama- 

 zon ; Darwin, Wilkes, and Gillis ex- 

 plored the coast lines of the continent ; 

 Wallace and Bates did wonderful scien- 

 tific work in the Amazon Basin, followed 

 by Agassiz and a host of other explorers. 

 Of the tributary basins of the Amazon, 

 vSteinen has mapped the Xingu, Church 

 the Madeira, Chandless and Labre the 

 Purus. 



In the Guianas Schomburgk's re- 

 searches are the most valuable. In late 

 years the most important explorations 

 are doubtless those of the French inter- 

 national polar expedition at Cape Horn, 

 under Martial. 



PATHMAKERS IN NORTH AMERICA 



Of the continents none other has so 

 benefited by the explorations of last cen- 

 tury as North America. To the genius, 

 tact, and energy of Humboldt was early 

 ( 1804) due modern geographical knowl- 

 edge of Spanish America, which was 



