UNKNOWN LANDS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 1007, 20 June 1911, Page 4

UNKNOWN LANDS.

FIELDS FOR THE MODERN EXPLORER. It is a mistake to assume that most of the earth’s surface has been explored. Indeed, asserts the Scientific American, there remains much for the explorer to accomplish. In Africa there are the Sahara, Wadai, and the valley of the Sobat. In the Sahara the highlands of Tibesti and those of Ahaggar need exploration. Wadai has been visited by only a very few persons ; and although it would be very difficult to penetrate into the territory itself, it is thought that useful exploring work might be done in some of the outlying districts, approachable from the Upper Benue or the Übaugi Welle. The region between Lake Rudolf and Abyssinia, and the valley of the Sobat, a tributary of the White Nile, believed to be of great interest, are almost unknown.

Aside from these three regions, it may be said that there is a fair knowledge of the general geographical features of Africa, but much detail remains to be ascertained, and much indifferent work must be done again. It thus appears that Africa still offers a wide and interesting field of research to the explorer. In Asia there are unexplored districts in various directions. Despite recent journeys in Oman and in the Hadramaut, there is still an unknown region in Arabia upward of 400 miles square ; and there is also much yet to be done in Asia Minor.

In Persia, parts of Luristan and the country of the Persian Kurd still remain unexplored. The great river Tsanpu, from longitude ninety-four degrees and ten seconds east to its entrance into the valley of Assam, under the name of Dihong, is practically unknown.

The region embracing the complicated mountain and river systems between India and China also affords opportunities ior the adventurous explorer, inasmuch

as there is much to learn about it. In the mass of islands lying to the south of Asia, there is a great field for exploration, especially in New Guinea. Some of the larger islands to the east of New Guinea are also virgin ground. In North America most of the work of the explorer has been done, yet in the Dominion of Canada vast unknown tracts invite the explorer. It is in South America, however, that the most extensive unexplored regions await the visits of scientific travellers. Although this continent is far richer than that of Africa, and although it has attracted the ablest explorers, it has on the whole received much less attention than Africa ; why, it would be difficult to say.

Many parts ot the Colombian cordilleras still need exploration, as well as the basins of several northern affluents of the Amazon ; while to the eastward there is an enormous tract that is still practically unknown. This is that wild, forest-covered region that was the scene of the adventurous searches for El Dorado in the sixteenth century. Farther south, although the region to the eastward of Cuzco, the ancient capital of the Incas, is now attracting attention, much is yet to be done. Of great interest are many unknown parts ot the Andes, of Peru, especially the little-known district round the lake of Parinacochas. The mountain peaks of the range above Tarapaca are virgin, and those of Sajama and Pallahuari have not yet been adequately measured. Indeed, it may be said that the whole of western South America is a most tempting field of research for the explorer of the future.