The route for the ship canal to connect the Baltic and the North Seas, is reported to have been determined upon and the preliminary work of construction to have been commenced. And we learn that a proposition is being discussed to connect the Danube with the Baltic Sea by way of the Vistula. However chimerical such a project may seem to us, we cannot at this time discredit those who believe in it. It shows that restless spirit that predominates the age, striving for the mastery of the commercial world. Politically, Europe has seen no geographical change, but those conversant with affairs apprehend a military catastrophe at no distant date, that will probably embroil the stronger nations and endanger the existence of the weaker ones.
Having practically acquired a knowledge of their territories, the people of these nations are diligently seeking to develop greater things in the study of all the earth, and we have thus seen formed as a means to this end, what is now known as the International Geodetic Association. The primary object of this Association is to determine the form of the earth. It is an inquiry of absorbing interest, and the geodetic work in America must eventually contribute an important factor in its solution. We may therefore hope that the bill now before the Congress authorizing the United States to have representation in the Association, will become a law. The free interchange between the continents that would thus be established, would be of incalculable benefit to both in the prosecution of this important scientific labor.
If we turn to the adjoining continent of Asia, there is still open a large field for Geographic research. Peopled as it has been, largely by semi-civilized races for many centuries, we might have expected that the book of nature that might be opened would long since have been spread before us; but the exclusiveness of this semi-civilization has been a stumbling-block, until it may be said that the wise men of her nations have lived only that the masses should not learn. Of the Political Geography of this great region we have a fair conception, and of the Physical conditions it may be said we know them generally. Enlightened men have been hammering at the borders with the powerful support of progressive nations, and a few have even passed the confines of exclusiveness and brought back to us marvellous tales of ancient grandeur. Men have sought disguise that they might tread on the forbidden ground, and many have lost their lives in efforts to gain the secrets that have been so persistently guarded. But the march of civilization is not to be thwarted by the semi-barbarous; they may yet impede it, as they have in the past, but it can be only for a time; the impulse is sure to come, when the thirst for knowledge and power by the antagonistic races will sweep all barriers before it, however strong. The contemplated railway across the continent to Vladivostock may be the culminating step in overcoming these refractory peoples and opening their territories to the march of progress. We have seen on our own continent the potent influence of these iron ways, and it is not too much to believe that even in the strange surroundings of the Orient they will exercise a power against which exclusiveness and superstition will be forced to give way.
In Africa we find still different conditions. A great continent believed to contain immense resources, but peopled with dark-hued native races, barbarous in their tendencies, and frequently deficient in intellect, and yet withal showing at times a savage grandeur that excites the admiration of the man, while it attracts the interest of the student. We may recall Carthage and Alexandria, and all the wonders of ancient Egypt that live to the confusion of our own day, while those who patterned them have been lost beyond the bounds of even the most ancient history: and look with trembling awe upon the degradation that has followed, the boundless dissipation of the learning of ages, until we are left only such remnants that our most cultivated imaginations can scarce build a superstructure worthy to raise upon the ruins.
But a new era is opening, the intelligence of later years is spreading over these once fruitful fields, and slowly but surely modern ideas are advancing into the midst of the unknown chaos, and in time will restore the great advantages that have lapsed in the ignorance of ages. The nations of Europe vie with one another to extend their possessions, and in the mad race for precedence are reclaiming even the waste places as footholds by which they hope to reach the power and wealth they see may be developed in the future. Explorers have brought back wondrous tales that have excited the cupidity of those who profit in the barter of nature's products, until vast schemes have been projected to seize the wealth believed to be within easy grasp.
Daring spirits discover new countries, and through the reports of the marvels they have seen, inspire their more cautious countrymen to venture into unknown fields in the hope of gain. The discontented, too, seek isolation and fancied independence in new regions, and thus is formed the nucleus that parent countries seize upon, encourage, and develop into colonies, that in time may revolutionize a continent, and seek a place among the nations of the world. This sequence of events has been gradually progressing in Africa, and has been greatly accelerated by the discoveries of recent years. A large section of the interior has now been opened to trade and colonization in the formation of the "Congo free State." It marks an era in the development of the continent that promises to be fruitful of rapid advance. The Geographic journals have contained many pages of notes during the year, showing the activity of explorers in supplying the Geographical details of the more accessible regions. But there is an area nearly half as large as that of the United States through which the explorer has not yet penetrated; a field of great interest to Geographers, but they may have years yet to wait, before they may read the story.
In the East Indies and among the islands of the Pacific there is still work for the Geographer of the most interesting character, and, indeed, for the explorer too. Those who depend upon charts of the great ocean realize too frequently the imperfect determination of the positions of many of these isolated landmarks, and the dangers surrounding them. This is more properly work for governments than for individuals, and we may hope the day is not far distant when American officers may again roam the seas in Geographic research, and bring fresh laurels to crown the enterprise of our people.
The great American continent, the New World as it is called, presents an example of progress of which history affords us none similar—a marked instance of the power of intelligent perseverance to conquer in new fields and bring under man's dominion for his use and welfare even some of the elements themselves. The last century has shown a branch of one of the old parent stocks, divorced from many of their traditions and left to themselves, imbued with a spirit of progress that has advanced with such giant strides, that in a generation we have seen more strange things than had come upon the world before in centuries. At the birth of our nation the now populous district on the Ohio and the Great Lakes was the "far west," roamed over by native tribes. The great northwest of to-day was marked upon the maps as "unexplored," and the confines of the continent on the Pacific were known more on the faith of good reports than the knowledge of observation; while that vast territory west of the Mississippi was not known at all, or only through the legends transmitted from the "Fathers" who had partly occupied it in following their holy calling. And yet within half a century explorers have traversed nearly every square mile, science has discovered in it treasures of knowledge that have taught the world: and instead of a vast region of wandering tribes, we find a civilization, energetic, progressive, and still pressing on to reclaim even that which has been considered waste. Indeed, so rapidly have the choice areas been occupied, that it may be but a few years when none will be left, and the question of over-population may press upon us as to-day it presses upon older nations. While this state of affairs may not excite present alarm, it is a matter of congratulation that the Congress at its last session provided the initial step for an exhaustive examination of the great arid region, to determine what portion of it may be reclaimed by irrigation.
And in Alaska the desirability of a better knowledge of our possessions has been emphasized by the fear of international complications on the boundary, which has resulted in a small appropriation by the Congress for surveys, with a view to obtaining a better knowledge of the country, whereby a more reasonable delimitation of the boundary can be made.
It is gratifying to note that the Bureaus of the Government service devoted to the practical development of the economic resources of our great territory, have been conducted during the year with the energy that has marked their progress heretofore. But it is yet too early to place a value upon the special results of the year's work, and I will leave their consideration, therefore, to my successor.