Show Dark Lands Invite the Explorer Earth Regions Unmapped and Mere Names to Scientists ts Exploration Is still thought ht of aa as a phase of ot adventure ad rather than of science Yet It must most rank In Importance Importance Importance tance with the work that the lie phys phys- physIcists phys phys- physicists physicists and anti cht chemists are doln doing In tear tear- tearIng tearing tearing ing bits of matter apart In order to discover of ot what the earth and the stars are made It Is science at nt Its empirIcal best We live e on a n planet small as celestial bodies go but bat hu huge e eto to us-so us us so hu huge e that only n a few cen cen- centuries centuries a ago o were we sure of Its globular globular globular lar shape Like LIle ants we are still busily crawling over It poking Into strange nooks and crannies that turn turnout turnout out to be fjords wriggling through jungles and swamps skirting deserts and fastnesses es that we fear to enter The passing of ot Prince Lul Luigi 1 Amadeo of Savoy Sa better known as the duke luke of or the Abruzzi reminds us how much crawling remains still to tobe tobe tobe be done In his lifetime he held hel two records one one for a farthest Tort that Peary was destined to beat an and l the other for ba having ln climbed l to the unprecedented hel height bt of ot 0 feet In an nn unsuccessful attempt to scale Mount Go GodwIn Austen or K 2 In the Kashmir Himalayas Scientifically more Important was his conquest of the range range-Ptolemy's range Ptolemy's leg leg- legendary legendary legendary Mountains of ot the Moon where the Nile was supposed to have bave Its source lie He must be regarded not only as ns the lineal descendant of kings but as ns the spiritual descendant of that long line of bold curious and restless men who pushed on Into the unknown and thus stilled some name name- nameless nameless nameless less Inner racial racial urge to carry on the exploration of the ter- ter ter surface Was he be the last of the great roamers roam roam- roamers reamers ers half halt athlete and halt half scientist n a writer In the New York Times muss muses h the and ani the Z Zeppelin have added l more to our topographic knowledge In a n week than we could hope to gather In n a century of ot tedious crawling we can cnn cannot cannot not yet expunge the words terra In- In Incognita Incognita In Incognita from the geographical lexi lexi- lexicon lexicon lexicon con Half Halt the Arctic an and l the Ant Ant- Antarctic Antarctic Antarctic arctic are still unmapped In Alas Alas- Alaska Alaska Alaska ka are mountain-blocks mountain almost as m mythical as was the range until the duke of the Abruzzi climbed It-a It a region of Incredible tales spun by Indians and Eskimos The heart henrt or of the Sahara lures with Its rumored 1 oases of ot antiquity nn and l the mountains of Its Berber songs In northern Arabia thirsty wastes and blinding sandstorms have ha pro e proved perfect de- de defenses defenses de defenses against hardened hardene l tribesmen who hove have h e but skirted them The I Burmese hill hili jungles are known only to the tribes who oho wander through them And what shall be said of or the Amazon valley aHey still hidden In steam steam- steamIng steaming steaming ing jungles and deadly miasmas Central Borneo an and l New Guinea are mere names The Congo Is but half balf explored In Australia we have haye the anomaly of a n continent of or which the InterIor Is as dark lark a mystery as was the re region lon Ion west of the Appalachians In Jeffersons Jefferson's time Northern Bechu- Bechu ana ana nna an and l the lands about Lake In Africa await valt another Abruzzi for all nil the trudging of Doctor Schwarz Despite airways and steamship lines highroads and railways we cannot yet pretend to know our own earth completely Green and andred andred re red l blanks on the maps mark lark dark lands and kingdoms of wonder |