Dark spots that the last century wiped off the earth.

The Eastern hemisphere in 1800		The Eastern hemisphere in 19001

THE nineteenth century is notable for two phases of geographic research, which excels any of its predecessors. To-day the whole of North America, south of sub-arctic latitudes, has been carefully explored, and the 13 large areas in Northern British America, to which Dr. Dawson referred as unknown, some ten years ago, have passed out of that category or been greatly reduced in size by such work as Ogilvie has done on the upper Yukon, Low, in Labrador, and the Tyrrell Brothers, in the Barren Lands.

Next to Europe, North America is the best explored part of the world, although less than 60 years ago, more than half the continent was not so well known as most of Africa is to-day.

It is only a question of time, when all the habitable territory of the United States and Canada will be as thoroughly studied and mapped as that of European states.

Plowing a path to the pole.2

That Central America still offers a large field to the explorer is shown by the fruitful work of Carl Sapper, who in his notable journey in recent years, has added to the map 81 volcanoes, of which 23 are still active. The long, gentle slopes from the Central Mountains to the eastern coast of Central America, continually drenched by the Trade Wind rains, have a luxuriant and almost impenetrable vegetation and are still very little known.

Most of the additions which the nineteenth century made to South American exploration are the work of European and North American explorers, many of them poorly equipped and paying their own way. Their most conspicuous service has been the mapping of the drainage and exploration in the northern and central parts of the Cordilleras.

The Spaniards long ago revealed the courses of the Amazon and La Plata, but they paid little attention to smaller streams and tributaries. It was left to this century, and particularly to the last three decades, to explore these rivers, and we now have an excellent idea of all the large features of the drainage system of that region.

European explorers have made Ecuador better known that Colombia simply because they have been attracted to the Ecuadorian Andes as a specially inviting field. Political or military influences have mainly invited exploration, so far as the states have participated in it. Thus the important wars, that Argentina waged. in 1879 and 1880, with the Indians of the South, and in 1884-1885, with those of the North, had the incidental result of making large parts of Patagonia and the Gran Chaco fairly well known.

Explorations in South America are of very uneven merit. Many are only crude route surveys. Argentina is, by far, the best mapped state for its geological and meteorological departments, and the staff of foreign professors in the higher schools placed exploration and mapping, after 1882, on a high plane. The Brazilian government has never promoted scientific exploration, and all official work in that line has been done by a few states, mainly by Minas Geraes, Sao Paulo, and, Para. Most of the far interior, away from the rivers, is still unknown. The Amazon basin is one of the largest unexplored areas in the world; for, although steamers sail regularly on the main stream and its many tributaries, the stretches between the rivers have not been visited. The inland parts of the Guianas and of the Cordilleran states from Venezuela to Bolivia are still in the crude and early stages of exploration.

A hundred years ago the world knew little or nothing of Africa and had knowledge only of its coasts, Egypt, some of the Barbary Coast lands, bits of Senegambia, and the upper Niger. It was indeed the dark continent.

During the long artic night.

In Polar exploration, the nineteenth century did not excel that of former centuries, although it has added many new islands to the maps, attained the farthest point north, and, what is perhaps most important, has perfected the art of living and traveling in comparative safety in the high latitudes. It may be that the Archipelago north of this continent will be considerably extended by later explorations, but there are good reasons for believing that the still unknown Arctic area contains no great land masses. The unknown part of the Antarctic regions is twice as large as Europe, and is now the largest unexplored area in the world.

Every Arctic expert now believes that the attainment of the north pole is only a question of time; and it is probable that the century just opened will fully complete explorations of the entire world, which the century lately closed so wonderfully advanced.

The directors of the Baldwin-Ziegler expedition, which recently returned, report that they succeeded in getting nearer to the pole by at least 400 miles than any previous explorers; but still they did not succeed in reaching the much coveted goal.

¹Charts showing what the world did not know about geography in 1800; what has been discovered and what is still in doubt.
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²Quadruple screw Ice-breaker "Errnack," crushing her way through field ice. This unique craft is an enlarged copy of an American lake ice-crusher, and was built by Armstrong, Whitworth & Co., for the Russian government with the object of keeping the harbor of Kronstadt free for navigation during the winter. Her success in the work prompted an attempt to reach the North Pole under Admiral Manakoff.
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RAILROADS IN THE UNITED STATES
BOOK II
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© 1998, 2002 by Lynn Waterman