INTO THE DESERT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 239, 9 October 1935, Page 5

INTO THE DESERT.

MODERN EXPLORER. DR. BERTRAM THOMAS' FEAT. 800 MIXES ON CAMEIBACK. The clangors, privations and thrills of liis remarkable 800 - mile camelback journey through the heart of the South Arabian Desert during the winter of 1930-31 was described last evening by Dr. Bertram Thomas to a capacity audience at the University College Hall. An easy speaker, Dr. Thomas toid timply of the expedition, which The Times" later described as "the greatest feat of exploration in modern times." The lecture was illustrated with magnificent natural colour lantern slides and by a cinematograph film. "Arabia has always presented difficulties to the white explorer not only on account of its being the hottest and driest part of the earth's surface but more chiefly owing to the hostility of the warlike natives to the presence of the infidel on his sacred soil," said Dr. Thomas. "Only about twenty Europeans have ever been able to penetrate to its Inhospitable heart and four of those •►ere murdered and did not return. No •no had explored the southern desert. It #as thought to be a waterless waste of lands, its peoples savage, and it was a tame of terror throughout the peninJula." Crossing the Sands. Describing the trip Dr. Thomas said fco set out from the south coast of Arabia with 25 wild denizens of the desert, men he had not known and if reports were true were treacherous by habit of mind, and so he marched for 58 days living in daily peril from treachery, tribal opposition or starvation. Leaving the mountains 3000 feet high to the south the course lay north and six days later the party came to the

first waterhole on the edge of the great sands; the next waterhole lay eight days' march ahead. These southern sands were found to be mountainous billows where the camels floundered about and became exhausted. No car could cross these lofty soft sands. "After a halt over a waterhole for a renewed effort a start was made with 12 camels and fresh men to face forced marches across the great desert wastes where few Arabs even have ever crossed in this longitude," continued the doctor. "To loiter meant death. The loss of a few camels, the meeting with an enemy, the absence of pastures —any one of these would have spelt tragedy. Relics of Ancient City. "Ancient caravan tracks leading into what is now a wall of shifting sands led to what my companions described as an ancient city now buried beneath the sands—a kind of Atlantis—called by them 'the road to Übar.' This may well be a relic of the tradition of the Biblical Ophir. "Only nine watcrholes _ were used throughout the 850-mile _ journey and the water was so brackish as to be almost undrinkable even by the natives; it was upsetting to man and beast." Mr. Thomas and his party at long last reached the coast thoroughly exhausted. He had crossed the deseit, the first white man ever to do so, and his exploration resulted in many valuable scientific discoveries being made. He had mapped an area as big as France and Germany together and had removed the last considerable blank on the map of the world. His exhaustive collection of animal life resulted in the discovery of 30 new species. A new race of men, the most round-headed known, was met and their language recorded. Dr. Thomas treated lightly the terrible hardships he obviously went through to carry out his amazing feat. In moving a vote of thanks to the speaker, Mr. T. U. Wells, president of the University College Council, said that he was proud that it was a Britisher who had been the first to cross the Great South Arabian Desert.

A perforated form of number plate which is claimed not to become obliterated by dirt and mud is being tested by the German traffic police. The dirt is supposed to fly through openings in the characters.