Filling the gaps on the maps.(Encyclopedia of Exploration, 1850 to 1940: The Oceans, Islands and Polar Regions)(Book review)

Encyclopedia of Exploration, 1850 to 1940: The Oceans, Islands and Polar Regions, by Raymond John Howgego; Hordern House Rare Books, 2006, $245.

WITH ALMOST bewildering speed, the third volume of Raymond Howgego's Encyclopedia of Exploration has appeared, covering a century of exploration of the oceans, islands and polar regions, from 1850 to 1940. It is, once again, a polymathic achievement, testifying to the compiler's energy, language skills and his own dedication to a life of travel to the far corners of the earth. For Howgego, an Englishman, is no armchair traveller. As he records the achievements of past explorers and travellers he does so with the insight into what it means to have rounded the Horn, to have seen where Speke found the source of the Nile, and to have crossed the Torugart Pass from Kyrgyzstan into China. A background as a teacher of physics underlines his concern for accuracy, but it his yen for travel that shines through in this, as in previous volumes. Small wonder that his achievements have led to his becoming a Councillor of the Hakluyt Society.

As Howgego makes clear in his introduction to the book, the century under review was distinguished by several distinctive characteristics that set it apart from the periods treated in his earlier two volumes. From 1850 onwards travel and exploration increasingly extended beyond the temperate continents to encompass regions that had been visited before, but frequently only briefly. Of particular interest for an Australian readership is the extent to which the exploration of the interior of New Guinea took place after 1900.

For a broader Australasian audience it is noteworthy that New Zealand's South Island falls within the category of being part of the later phase of exploration. Although the North Island was well known by the middle of the nineteenth century, it was after 1850 that the South Island was charted, as gold miners and graziers moved across the central mountain spine to the western part of the island.

The period covered by this third volume also saw the emergence of photography as a recording tool, the eventual use of aircraft for aerial mapping, and the increasing presence of women among the ranks of long-distance travellers, not least the indomitable Isabella Bird.

As the son of a geologist who studied under Sir Tannatt William Edgeworth David and who still holds memories of meeting Sir Douglas Mawson as a child, for me the sections on the exploration of the Antarctic hold a special fascination. Reading of David and Mawson, of Shackleton and of Scott, it is sobering to realise that their heroic endeavours took place barely a century ago and to contemplate how severe were the privations that they overcame.

The sections dealing with the exploration of New Guinea are no less fascinating. Nowadays there is a disturbing lack of Australian interest in that great island, except by those who support the "Free Papua Movement" in ways that imperil Australia's relations with Indonesia. For instance, how many Australians are aware of the early expeditions that opened up the interior and are detailed here: the ...