FOR THE EXPLORER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20318, 28 January 1928, Page 13

FOR THE EXPLORER.

MUCH REMAINS UNDONE VAST REGIONS STILL UNMAPPED. In the brief span of years from 1909, ■when Peary stood at the North Pole, to 1927, when aviators conquered the Atlantic, eager adventurers have covered more of the surface of the globe 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 aerop 1 ues; almost every high mountain has been climbed; blank spaces on the maps have been filled in. Lost tribes have been found, deserts reclaimed, oceans sounded, the 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 the shadowy ranks of the 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 the heels of such logic come the following .startling facts: — More exploratory expeditions are being planned and equipped at this moment than at any time in history; about 50 serious projects are under way. More money is being invested in exploration ana geographical research this year than was invested in any preceding decade. WHAT IS THERE LEFT? Canada, Britain, France, Denmark, Norway, Russia, Italy, Japan, and the United Stales are each underwriting scientific expeditions to be carried out officially under their respective flags. The puzzle is that there should be such a swelling flood of interest in exploration just when there seem to .be so many indications that the explorer Is about to go on the shelf. What, then, is there left to explore? In the first, place, seven-eighths of the earth’s surface has never _ been gazed upon by human eye 1 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 penetrates may yet divulge riches and secrets more thrilling than any ever found on the dry continents. The ends of the earth are still mostly a closed book to science. Hardy pioneers like Peary, Scott, Amundsen, Byrd, Stefansson, and Wilkins have penetrated the icy fastnesses of the Arctic and Antarctic. But we have learned very little of the resources in power and mineral, flora and fauna there to be found. Moreover, there are vast areas that have not as yet been even superficially visited. In the Arctic 4,000,000 square miles of the earth s surface remain to be reviewed by the human eye; in the Antarctic close 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 we already can make a fair guess that the Polar regions are just full of ice and that the more inaccessible tropics are a mass of tangled jungle? . Right in the front yard of civilisation have been made Some of the main scientific finds of recent years. Spy Andrews astonished the museums when he brought back the petrified eggs of a 1,000,000-year-old dinosaur, Douglas Burden made fairy books come true when he captured two live dragons last Fall, in the shape of the hitherto unseen “ giant lizard of Komodo.” Navy topographem found a whole 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 to the daring Modern exploration may be 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 the earth that has been most painstakingly scrutinised for many centuries. Commercial aims explain this fact. . The question is: Granting that there is a fair amount left to explore in the way of actual area, and that in very recent times data and specimens of wide scientific interest have been brought back, does further exploration of this sort justify the 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 populatin. 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 are having less and less influence, owing to the advance of pacifism and medicine. Hunger is one that looms on the horizon of the future. Only about 6 per cent, of the globe is under direct control of civilisation. Unly about 40 per cent, of the United States is even considered arable. Some 1,200,000,000 acres of America are now unfit 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.