2 44 The National Geographic Magazine 



equal to Ireland. Much larger than 

 Great Britain and Ireland, and embrac- 

 ing 178,000 square miles, is the region 

 bounded by Blacks River, Great Slave 

 lyake, Athabasca lyake, Hatchet and 

 Reindeer I^akes, Churchill River, and 

 the west coast of Hudson Bay. This 

 country includes the barren grounds of 

 the continent. Mr. J. B. Tyrell re- 

 cently struck through this country on his 

 trip to Fort Churchill, on the Churchill 

 River, but could only make a prelim- 

 inary exploration. On the south coast 

 of Hudson Bay, between the Severn and 

 Attawapishkat Rivers, is an area 22,000 

 square miles in extent, or larger than 

 Nova Scotia, and lying between Trout 

 Lake, Lac Seul, and the Albany River 

 is another 15,000 square miles of unex- 

 plored land. South and east of James 

 Bay and nearer to large centers of pop- 

 ulation than any other unexplored re- 

 gion is a tract of 35,000 square miles, 

 which may be compared in size to 

 Portugal. 



The most easterly area is the greatest 

 of all. It comprises almost the entire 

 interior of the Labrador Peninsula or 

 Northwest Territory, in all 289,000 

 square miles, or more than twice as 

 much as Great Britain and Ireland. 

 Two or three years ago Mr. A. P. Lowe 

 made a line of exploration and survey 

 into the interior of this vast region, and 

 the same gentleman also traveled inland 

 up the Hamilton River, but with these 

 exceptions the country may be regarded 

 as practically unexplored. 



The Arctic islands will add an area of 

 several hundred thousand square miles 

 of unexplored land. 



The government during the past year 

 has made a great effort in the direction 

 of exploring and developing this vast 

 territory. It has recognized the fact 

 that railroads are essential to the devel- 

 opment of a new country, and liberal 

 inducements for their construction are 

 made by granting millions of acres of 

 land as a bonus. 



GEOGRAPHIC PROGRESS IN SOUTH 

 AMERICA 



TH E governments of the South 

 American Republics are begin- 

 ning to make an effort to obtain a better 

 knowledge of their vast territories. One 

 hundred years ago South America, next 

 to Europe, was the most accurately 

 known of the continents. Today it is 

 the least known of them all, so rapid 

 has been geographic progress elsewhere 

 and so tardy in South America. 



The government of Bolivia has re- 

 cently taken steps to obtain a complete 

 survey of the country. A Paris firm 

 has engaged to immediately survey and 

 map 40,000 square kilometers and to lay 

 off a triangulation which will enable a 

 complete trigonometrical survey of the 

 country to be made. Bolivia has also 

 arranged with Paraguay for a joint com- 

 mission to trace and mark the boundary 

 between the two nations. A joint com- 

 mission with Brazil several months ago 

 commenced surveying the Bolivian-Bra- 

 zilian line. A school of mines has also 

 been established by the Bolivian Gov- 

 ernment to train and encourage its own 

 people to the development of its mineral 

 resources. 



COMMERCIAL RELATIONS OF THE 

 UNITED STATES 



THE Bureau of Foreign Commerce 

 of the Department of State has 

 issued its report on the commercial rela- 

 tions of the United States for 1 900. The 

 introduction, by the chief of the Bureau, 

 Frederic Emory, contains several perti- 

 nent pages on the present ascendency of 

 the United States : 



' ' Lord Rosebery is quoted by cable as 

 having said in a speech before a British 

 chamber of commerce January 16, 1901, 

 that the chief rivals to be feared by 

 Great Britain ' are America and Ger- 

 many. The alertness of the Americans, ' 

 he continued, ' their incalculable natural 



