FOR THE EXPLORER

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 4 February 1928, Page 3

FOR THE EXPLORER

MUCH REMAINS UNDONE

VAST REGIONS STILL UNMAPPED OCEAN DEPTHS GUARD THEIR SECRETS In the brief span of years from 1909. when Peary stood at the North Pole, to 1927. when aviators conquered the, Atlantic, eager adventurers havo covered more of the surface of tho globo than was covered in the whole preceding million years or so of man’s ascent from savagery. In less than a quarter of a century both Poles have twice been visited; the. globe has been circled by aeroplanes; almost every high mountain has been climbed ; blank spaces on t he maps have been filled in. Lost tribes havo been found, deserts reclaimed, oceans sounded tho upper atmospheric strata explored, planets studied. The. earth’s core has been probed, the ether has been pierced by radio. Eggs of the ancient dinosaur have been dug from their prehistoric resting place. Is it possible that there is anything left to explore? Or is that romantic character, the explorer, going to join tho shadowy ranks of tho covered wagon pioneer, who served his gallant purpose in his time and was then engulfed by the onrushing wave of civilisation ? Plotting the curve of man’s knowledge of the physical globe from 1909 to 1927, one might reasonably decide that the sport of exploration is on its last legs. But right on tho heels of such logic come tho following startling facts: More exploratory expeditions are being planned and equipped at this moment than at any time in history; about _SO serious projects are under way. More money is being invested in exploration and geographical research this year than was invested in any preceding decade, WHAT IS THERE LEFT? Canada, Britain, France, Denmark, Norway, Russia, Italy, Japau, and the United States are each underwriting

scientific expeditions to i>o carried out officially under their respective liar's. 1 The puzzle is that there should he such a swelling Hood of interest in exploration just when there seems to bo so many indications that the explorer is about to go on the shelf. What, thou, is there left to explore? In the, first, place, seven-eighths of 1 the earth’s surface has never been gazed upon by human eye! This is the portion of the globe covered by the oceans. \ The bottom of the, sea- is the largest single field left to the explorer. Its mountain peaks and plains, its jungles and dark ravines, its weird black depths where no ray of light, ever pene (rates may yet divulge riches and secrets more thrilling than any ever found on tho dry continents'. The ends of the earth arc still mostly a dosed book to science. Hardy pioneers like Peary, Scott, Amundsen, Byrd, iSlefansson and Wilkins have penetrated the icy fastnesses of the Arctic and Antarctic. But wo kayo learned very little of the resources in power and mineral, flora, and fauna, there to bo found. Moreover, there aro vast areas that have riot as yet, been even superficially visited. In the Arctic | 4,000,000 square miles of the earth’s surface remain to bo reviewed by the human eye; in the Antarctic closo to ' 5,000,000 square miles. In Tibet, Abyssinia, French West Africa, and along the Upper Amazon, there are still substantial blank spaces on the maps. Would it be worth while for explorers to visit these unknown areas when wo already can make a fair guess that the Pplar regions are just full of ice and that the more inaccessible tropics arc a mass of tangled jungle? Right in the front yard of civilisation have been made some of the main scientific finds of recent years. Roy Andrews astonished the museums when lie brought hack the petrified eggs of a million-year-old dinosaur. Douglas Burden made fairy hooks come true when he captured two live dragons last Fall, in the shape of the hitherto unseen “giant lizard of Komodo.” Navy topographers found a wliolo lake of pure vaseline in Northern Alaska. A recent American museum expedition in Central America brought back living specimens of white Indians. IN THE PRODIGIOUS SPACES At this rate there is no telling what wild freak might not turn up in the

prodigious spaces yet left In I lie daring t raveller.

Modern explore lion may he divided into three different phases corresponding to three different levels in which its field lies: The surface of the earth, the air above, and that vast domain beneath the sea. It is the surface of Hie earth that has been most, painstakingly scrutinised for many centuries. Commercial aims explain this fact. The question is: Granting that, there ir, a fair amount left, to explore m the way of actual area, and that, in very recent' times data and specimens of wide, scientific intcrept fia.vo been brought back, does ’further exploration of this sort, justify lhr great amount of money and energy entailed by a modern expedition The reply to this question strikes unexpectedly near home:— Exploration from now on must be largely predicated on our enormous increase in population. The Malthusian theory gave us hope that the world’s races would be kept balanced by war, disease, hunger, and other natural enemies of man. The first two arc having less and less influence, owing to the advance of pacifism and medicine. Hunger is the one that looms on the horizon of the future.

Only about, 6 per cent, of the globe is under direct control of civilisation. Only' about 40 per cent, of the United States i,s even considered arable. Somo 1,200,000,000 acres of our own land are now unlit for agricultural development. Exploration of inaccessible and useless areas of this sort and photographing of swamp and desert districts constitute the first move towards making them house and feed our excess population.