150 



The National Geographic Magazine 



to that of Columbus' discovery of Amer- 

 ica. Each explorer opened up a new 

 continent, and gave rise to scientific and 

 philanthropic schemes vv^hich affected 

 the progress of the world. 



Europe awakened to the importance 

 of the Kongo Basin, with its great lakes, 

 its ten thousand miles of navigable riv- 

 ers, which leave no part of the basin 

 one hundred miles distant; its fertile 

 valleys, its animal life and vegetable 

 resources, and its millions of " inhabit- 

 ants. Africa speedily became the center 

 of commercial exploitation, which was 

 not confined to private enterprise. Most 

 fortunately, by act of international con- 

 ference the Kongo Free State, with an 

 area of nearly a million square miles, 

 became independent. Presenting the 

 greatest natural possibilities, it practi- 

 cally bears, in interest and importance, 

 the same relation to Africa as does the 

 watershed of the Mississippi and its 

 tributaries to the United States. 



By rail and steamboat one now travels 

 from the west coast, through the Kongo 

 State, more than half way across Africa. 

 Its revenue is counted by tens of mill- 

 ions of francs, its exports and imports 

 increase steadily, and, apart from the 

 12,000,000 inhabitants of the French 

 Kongo, it has a population of 30,000,000. 

 The effect of the geographic evolution 

 of Africa upon Europe maj^ be esti- 

 mated by the statement that Belgium, 

 in its relations with the Kongo State, 

 deals with a country whose area is 

 one hundred times its own, and that of 

 the 11,500,000 square miles of Africa 

 all but 500,000 are European depen- 

 dencies. 



OCEANOGRAPHY A NEW ART 



As to oceanography, a development 

 of the nineteenth century, space only 

 permits allusion to the work of Sigs- 

 bee, in the Gulf of Mexico; Carpenter, 

 Thomson, and Norwegian savants in the 

 North Atlantic, and Nares and Murray 



in the Challenger expedition. The lat- 

 ter work, under Murrav 's exposition, has- 

 outlined the main features of the oceanic 

 world for the twentieth century to ex- 

 plore and chart in detail. 



As to the twentieth century, it should. 

 be noted that pioneer discoveries are 

 yielding steadily to scientific explora- 

 tions. Future work will trend toward 

 the outlining of existent and possible 

 relations between man and his geo- 

 graphic environment. In this sense 

 there remain numerous geographic prob- 

 lems whose satisfactory solution will tax. 

 many generations of scientific explorers. 

 Such, for instance, are current investi- 

 gations as to the acclimatization of 

 •Europeans in tropical Africa and the 

 distribution of underground streams in 

 the arid regions of Australia and the 

 United States. 



Reverting to pioneer discoveries, the 

 twentieth century, despite unceasing' 

 efforts of this age, inherits an extensive 

 legacy of unknown lands. Exploration 

 for exploration's sake will for many 

 years find ample scope in untraversed. 

 polar regions, Arctic and Antarctic, 

 where the attainment of the Poles will- 

 continue to be largely the end in view. 



Of unexplored areas West Australia 

 now presents the most extensive, its- 

 vast desert having been examined only 

 here and there along routes hundreds of 

 miles apart. 



While North America has large, 

 vaguely known districts only in MexicO' 

 and Central America, yet South America 

 presents many fields of great promise to 

 adventurous men. This is especially 

 true of the eastern slopes of the Andes 

 in Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil. • In' 

 the western half of the drainage basin 

 of the Amazon exploration has touched 

 onl}^ the banks of navigable streams. 

 Our knowledge is largely conjectural as- 

 to the extent and distribution of its for- 

 ests and upland and of the existent con- 

 ditions of its fauna, flora, and inhabit- 

 ants. : 



