THE UNMAPI'KD AREAS OX THE EARTH'S SURFACE 1.'55 



work for explorers in Asia ami plenty i>f material to occupy the 

 attention of our geographical societies. 



DAHKKST AFKICA 



Coming to the map of Africa, we tind the most marvelous trans- 

 formation (luring the last sixty years, and mainly during the last 

 forty years, dating from Livingstone's menH)ral)le journey across 

 the continent. Though tlie north of Africa was the home of one 

 of the oldest civilizations, and though on the shores of the Med- 

 iterranean Pluenicians, Carthaginians. Greeks, and I'omans were 

 at work for centuries, it has only l)een within the memory of many 

 of us that the center of the continent, from the Sahara to the con- 

 fines of Cape Colony, has ceased to he an unexplored hlank. This 

 blank has been filled up with bewildering raj)idity. Great rivers 

 and lakes and mountains have been laid down in their main 

 features, and the whole continent, with a few unimportant ex- 

 ceptions, has been parceled out among the powers of Europe; 

 but much still remains to be done ere we can form an adeipiate 

 conception of what is in some respects the most interesting and 

 the most intractable of the continents. Many curious problems 

 still remain to be solved. The pioneer work of exploration has 

 to a large extent been accomplished ; lines have been run in all 

 directions; the main features have been blocked out; but be- 

 tween these lines the broad meshes remain to be filled in. and 

 to do this will require many 3'ears of careful exploration. How- 

 ever, there still remain one or two regions that afford scope for 

 the adventurous jjioneer. 



To the south of Abyssinia and to the west and nortliwest of 

 Lake Rudolf, on to the Upper Nile, is a region of considerable ex- 

 tent, which is still practically unknown. Again, in the western 

 Sahara there is an extensive area, inhabited mainly by the in- 

 tractable Tuaregs, into which no one has been able to penetrate, 

 and of which our knowledge is extremely scanty. Even in the 

 central Sahara there are great areas which have not been tra- 

 versed, while in the Libyan desert much remains to be done. 

 These regions are of interest almost solely from the geographical 

 and geological standpoints ; but they deserve careful investiga- 

 tion, not only that we may ascertain their actual present condi- 

 tion, but in order, also, that we may try to disct)ver some clues 

 to the past history of this interesting continent. Still, it must 

 be said that the great features of the continent have l)een so fully 

 mapped during the last half century that what is reiiuired now 



