HINTS FOR EXPLORERS

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1514, 7 March 1901, Page 65

HINTS FOR EXPLORERS

The chief feature of the “Windsor Magazine” for January is an article by ;; Sir Henry M. Stanley, on “Fields for "Future Explorers.” The great: African explorer declares that although the map - of the “Dark Continent” is becoming black with names, Africa remains for most practical purposes as unknown as ; before the Victoria Nyanza and the Con>go were discovered., From Sir Henry’s \ statements, it appears that East Africa contains two sections about which we are very ignorant. . v One em-. braces all that region lying between the Jub River and Takes Stephanie and Rudolph. The other extends from- Take Rudolph to Fashoda, on the one hand, and Southern Abyssinia on the other. A thorough knowledge of these: two regions would throw much-needed, light, on .the main routes taken by the. ancient migrants from Abyssinia, whose blood, blending with that of the primitive tribes south, hqs produced that warlike 'race who’ have fought their way down to iZululand. Two exploring expeditions, -well conducted, would settle the sources. of the Jub and the Sobat, define the onorthern reach of the Ma.u Plateau, and the southern limits of the spurs extending from the mountainous mass of Abys'■sinia. Between these some interesting lakes ought to be found.” Another- region which is very promising as a field -"for exploration extends between the ' Tanganyika and Albert Edward Takes. The writer refers to this area and observes, that out of a dozen explorers who have visited this locality, only one can be said to have crossed the territory, and his observations have rather excited than allayed interest. What ought to be discovered there is the

dividing line between the head of the Kivet Basin and that of the Albert Edward, 'and "a thorough investigation of this , part would discover/the south-west-ern sources of the Nile and: the eastern sources of,, the Congo... ; The people in-. habiting the region would be found to be among the most interesting of any in Africa, from, the fact that, unless .wo are much! mistaken, they.: are relics, o.f a great prehistoric migration cooped up in that peculiar recess formed by the Tanganyika to the south, the mountain chains to the east, and the great Congo forest to the west, while the war-loving rapes inarching to the south moved past) them apparently unheeded and unheeding.’” Accompanying, the article is .a map which indicates that not more than, half of the earths surface has been effectively explored by civilised man.