MAGNITUDE OF SHIPPING. 



773 



lines of steamships plying to Europe. Of these the Anchor 

 line has 15 steamers, with a tonnage of 36,127 tons; the 

 Baltic Lloyds has 4 vessels of 9,200 tons; the Cardiff (a Welsh) 

 line has three vessels of 8,000 tons ; the Cunard has 23 ves- 

 sels of 59,308 tons ; the Holland (direct) line has two vessela 

 of 4,000 tons ; the General Transatlantic (a French line) haa 

 5 vessels of 17,000 tons ; the Hamburg has 15 vessels of 45,- 

 000 tons ; the Inman line has 12 vessels of 34,811 ; the Liv- 

 erpool and Great Western line has 7 vessels of 23,573 tons ; 

 the North German line has 20 vessels of 60,000 tons; the 

 National line has 12 vessels of 50,062 tons; the State line has 

 3 vessels of 7,500 tons ; and the White Star line has 6 vessels 

 of 23,064 tons. Beside these ships, the thirteen companies are 

 building from 30 to 40 more steamers to meet the demand for 

 freight. 



The ocean has thus become almost a steam ferry; almost 

 every day a steamer leaves for Europe. With this knowledge 

 of how far we have progressed in becoming acquainted with 

 the ocean, it will be well to consider for a moment how much 

 still remains for us to explore. In the middle ages, and even 

 down to modern times, the maps of the world represented all 

 unknown lands as inhabited by monsters ; but every voyage 

 made by discoverers has contracted the limits of these fables, 

 until they have finally about disappeared. Still at the North 

 Pole and in the Antarctic regions areas extending over a space 

 of 2,900,000 and 8,700,000 square miles, respectively, have 

 been, up to this time, un visited. The icebergs and mountains 

 of ice have kept them from our accurate investigations. The 

 difficulties of such a sea are well shown in the adjoining 

 illustration. 



Discoveries have also to be made in the interiors of Africa, 

 Asia, South America and Australia before the civilized por- 

 tions of the race can claim a complete knowledge of the earth, 

 their common dwelling-place. Every year, however, the por- 



