LANDS YET UNKNOWN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 300, 13 May 1911, Page 10

LANDS YET UNKNOWN.

Tt is a mistake to assume thai most of the earth's surface has been explored, there remains much for the explorers to accomplish. In Africa there are the Sahara. Wadai. and the valley of the Sohat. In the Sahara the highlands of Tabesti and tho«e of Almggar need exploration. Wadai has boon visited by only a few persons; and although it would be very difficult to penetrate into the territory it-elf, it is thought that useful exploring work might be done in some of the outlying districts, approachable from the upper Beinie or the Übangi Welle. The region between Lake Rudolph and Abyssinia and the valley of the Sobat, a tributary of the White Nile, are believed to be of great interest, but are almost unknown. Aside from these 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 Hadraniaut, there is still an unknown region in Arabia upward of four hundred 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. Farther east S'ven Hedin and others, extensive as their travels have been, have left a great deal of work for the future explorer. There are passes from Tibet into Xepal; much unknown country in south-western Tibet affords opportunities for the adventurous explorer, inasmuch as there is a great deal to learn about it.

Tn the mass of islands lying to the south of Asia there is a groat, field for exploration, especially in New Guinea. Some of the larger islands to the east of Xew Guinea are also virgin ground. Tt 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 ahlest explorers, it has on the whole received much less attention than Africa; why. it, would be difficult to hit. Many parts of the Colomhian 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, forestcovered region that \va = the scene of the adventurous searches for 151 Dorado in the sixteenth ecnturv. Farther south, although the region to the eastward of CiU"n, the ancient capital of the Tncas, i.s now attracting attention, much yet is to lie done. flf groat iulerest are unknown part* of (he Andes of Peru, especially the litt'c-known district round Hie lake of Pari'nacochas. The mountain peaks of th" range above Tarapaoa are virgin, and those of Saiama and Pallahuari have not vet been adequately measured. Indeed, it mav he said that the whole orography of western Routh America is a most tempting field of research for thfe explorer of the future.