Advances in Geographic Knowledge 



1-47 



The foundation of the Imperial Rus- 

 sian Geographical Society in 1845 gave 

 impetus and direction to Asiatic discov- 

 eries, increased knowledge of the Rus- 

 sian Empire being the aim. From 1849 

 to 1857 Hoffman, Aksakof, and others 

 explored the Ural region and the ethno- 

 graphic features of Russia proper and of 

 Western Siberia. Extending in scope 

 from 1857 to 187 1, besides Siberian re- 

 searches in Amur, Usuri, and Saghalin, 

 the Caucasian and Aral-Caspian regions 

 were explored in the southwest, while to 

 the east many expeditions entered Tur- 

 kestan, Manchuria, Khorassan,and Mon- 

 o;olia. 



Between 187 1 and 1885 Central Asia, 

 Mongolia, and Western China were 

 explored, largel}^ through Prjevalsky, 

 and international polar stations were 

 established on the Lena and in Nova 

 Zembla. Severtsoff and Fedchenko ex- 

 plored Turkestan minutely ; the deserts 

 -of northwestern Siberia and Lake Baikal 

 were examined and a sea route opened 

 from Tobolsk by way of the Kara Sea 

 to St. Petersburg. 



TIBET IS A MYSTERY YET 



During the last fifteen years attention 

 has been paid to Caucasia, Turkestan, 

 the Amur, and Black Sea regions. In 

 these years perhaps the most interest- 

 ing explorations are those of Hedin, 

 who crossed the desert of moving sand 

 hills between the Yarkand and Khotan 

 Rivers, outlined the northern rim of the 

 great Tibetan Plateau, and examined 

 Lob Nor Basin. 



Explorations in Southern Asia origi- 

 nated in the desire to extend inland the 

 sphere of British influence. Political 

 ■considerations speedily entered into the 

 problem , and those barriers proved more 

 difficult to surmount than physical ob- 

 stacles. In reaching the Himalayan 

 foothills, and later in passing across the 

 ranges into Afghanistan and Tibet, the 

 •explorer necessarily awaited brief inter- 



vals in the wars of conquest and occu- 

 pation. 



Manning succeeded in entering Tibet 

 in 181 1, but was soon expelled. Non- 

 intercourse was so rigidly enforced that 

 the Britisli surveys had recourse to se- 

 lected native agents, and most of the early 

 advances were made through secret jour- 

 neys of pundits, among whom Chandra 

 Das stands foremost. As usual, much 

 has been learned by missionary labors, 

 especially in Tibet, through Hue and 

 Desgodins, the latter also contributing 

 much to a knowledge of Indo-China. 

 In recent 3'ears both countries have been 

 explored b\' Rockhill, Bonvalot, Little- 

 dale, Szechenyi, Henri of Orleans, and 

 others, especially the pundit Nain Singh, 

 under conditions that leave much to be 

 added. 



Japan has opened her unknown empire 

 to the world. While much has been done 

 b}' Japanese travelers to make its geog- 

 raphy known, yet the geological re- 

 searches of Naumann should be noted. 



■MAP OF AFRICA FILLED IN 



The extent to which exploration 

 changed the map of Africa during the 

 nineteenth century is known only to 

 professional geographers. It is true that 

 in 1800 the entire coast of Africa was 

 known with some definiteness .through 

 the exertions of Portuguese navigators 

 in previous centuries. Yet apart from 

 the valley of the Nile geographic knowl- 

 edge of the interior was confined to a 

 scant hundred miles southward from 

 the Mediterranean and northward from 

 the Cape of Good Hope and to the 

 estuaries of the Zambezi, Kongo, and 

 Niger. 



Geographic knowledge stopped, al- 

 most within sight of the sea or the 

 Lower Nile. Scarcely fifty years since 

 there appeared, from 5 degrees north to 

 10 degress north, on the best maps of 

 Africa, the legend, "Kong Range, 

 mountains supposed to extend across 



