Mary Anning had only discovered the fossil of an ichthyosaur in around 1810 (see my review of Remarkable Creatures). Knowledge of dinosaurs was still fairly new as well. Conan Doyle wrote this story when news of amazing new discoveries were far more common than they are today. Roald Amundsen actually got there in 1911. Mawson, Shackleton and Edgeworth David almost reached the South Pole in an 1907-1909 expedition. Robert Peary and his team were the first people to reach the North Pole in 1909. Dr Livingston’s famous encounter with Stanley occurred in 1871, when Livingston was attempting to find the source of the Nile. But this book was published just over 100 years ago, in a time when there were still the vast interiors of remote lands left untouched.
Even remote areas that are difficult to get to can viewed on satellite images. These days it seems that everywhere has been explored and that there are no new lands left undiscovered.
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