ADVENTURE IN THE SAHARA.

Evening Star, Issue 11679, 11 February 1902, Page 7

ADVENTURE IN THE SAHARA.

A YOUTHFUL EXPLORER'S DISCOVERY.

[From Our Special Lores,spun dent.]

LONDON, January 3. Mr Edward Dodson, the young explorer who recently returned to England after an interesting journey of five months’ duration in the great, desert- which forms the hinterland of Tripoli, has given a, Reuter's representative some particulars of his wanderings in the untrodden recesses of the (Treat Sahara. The country is rigorously closed to travellers by the Turkish Oovernment. and has not been visited by Europeans lor over fifty years, Tho lastforeign caravan in the hinterland was cut: up by Ihe tribes, and the leader barely escaped with his life. Through the British Foreign Office, permission was obtained from the Turkish Oovernmcnt for Mr Dodson to conduct his expedition, which was sent- out under the auspices of the Natural History Museum. Perhaps the most interesting discovery that he made was that of a pe.intied forest and marine shells, which showed that part of the Sahara was at one time submerged, and

gives an air of practicality to the dream of the French engineer of letting the ocean into the Sahara, and journeying about the interior of Africa in ships. Mr Dodson's expedition was undertaken for the purposes of natural history, but from that point of view it-, results appear to have been disappointing. In the matter of adventure, however, it was fruitful, and what with mutinous followers, hostile tribes, and Turkish Governors, Mr Dodson is lucky j iu having lived to tell the tale. As i it is, his health has .suffered severely from j the elfects of the expedition. Outlining , his journey, Mr Dodson said:— ! in March last Mr Drake, my assistant, and I left London for Malta, travelling thence by Italian steamer to Tripoli, where we remained for ten days purchasing camels and arranging for our journey into the interior. Mol withstanding our permission from Constantinople, we met with j difficulties from the outset. The Mali of j Tripoli refused to allow us to carry any j cartridges into Ihe country, and We had [ to delay our departure into the desert j until we got telegraphic permission from | Constantinople. Eventually the Turkish j Governor detailed a sergeant and a private to escort Us, and our caravan, consisting of ourselves, nine Arab servants, eight camels, and three horses, started. After traversing a belt of shifting sand dunes we travelled for some days through A CL'L'rtVATKD Iit’GION inhabited by nomad Bedouins, whose blank tents we met frequently, and who supplied ns with food anti treated us well. Eight days after our start we entered upon j the Great Desert, and a period of heat : and drought commenced. Now and again, I at some s{>ot Where there happened to he a scrap of pasture, we would come upon afewWafella Arabs in a tiny encampment, but with this exception there was nowhere any sign of life. Water was only obtainable at places ten or twelve hours distant, and the prevalence of blinding hot sandstorms and the glare and heat entailed very hard work. During the “Gebleh” winds we had simply to hide in our tents and envelop our heads in cloths, as if was often quite impossible to travel through the blinding, drifting sand, which made one’s nose and lips ei'ack and bleed. While encamped in one of these Wadys, »n Arab | rode in to warn us that the Wafella were ! going*to attack ns. He urged our fob , lowers fo desert, and leave the two Christians to their fate. Every precaution was ] taken against

N'ICiIIT SURPRISES, A zareba of saddles and packs was constructed, armed sentries put out, and all lights extinguished at sUhclovVu. Next day we spotted through our glasses a party of Arabs waiting for us behind some scrub in a torrent bed, through which we should had had to pass. We immediately altered our track, and the rascals were So much surprised at out hiving discovered their

whereabouts and so avoided the ambush prepared for us that they forthwith bolted. In due course we reached a Roman reservoir. This wonderful piece of .ancient stonework was in excellent repair, the cement being as good and the reservoir as watertight as ever. After getting some water we struck out for the Bonjem oasis, which is on the direct track for the town of Sokna (160 miles distant across the desert), whither we were now bound. At Bonjem we hoped to get fresh food and water, but to our dismay wo found that the few people there were themselves starving, and subsisting chiedy on snails and date palm juice. Owing to the hardships wc had already encountered, our Turkish sergeant died at this place, and was buried by the Arabs, this being regarded by our people as a judgment on them far accompanying a Christian expedition. From this place to Sokna was a four days’ journey over absolutely uninhabited desert, and as we were without water we had to march night and day in the intervals between flic sand-storms. During the height of one of these storms our horses stampeded, and were not recovered for two days. After four days’ incessant marching we reached Sokna, where we had to remain for a week, the whole caravan, both men and animals, being thoroughly exhausted. THU FIRST WHITE MEN.

Sokna is a small oasis, with a population of 2,000 and a Turkish garrison of 200 men. The inhabitants had never before seen a European, and the women and children fled at our approach, having been told that Christians ate children. The officials, however, treated us well. This place was originally intended to be the limit of our expedition, bub as up to the present the results had not been all that wo wished from a naturalist’s standpoint, I decided to push on to Muraik, some 500 miles further south. To this our caravan objected, and our men even went so far as to attempt a mutiny, which fortunately proved unsuccessful. Sonic time after leaving Sokna wo commenced to cross the Jihil Soda, or Black Mountains, which consist of great slabs of perfectly black stone, very difficult to cross, and quite destitute of inhabitants. One of the most notable things on our journey to Murzuk was the great petrified forest which wo passed through. For ten hours we travelled across

AN AREA OF PETRIFIED TREES, varying in circumference from 7ft to a fewinches. Everv branch of this forest was, of course, lying prone, and this, together with the presence of marine shells, showed that this part of the Great Sahara had at one time been submerged. We reached Murzuk three weeks after striking the Black Mountain range. Murzuk is the scat of government, and chief town of the province of Fezzan, and here, owing to some misunderstanding on the part of the Governor, we were arrested, and our escort thrown into gaol and disarmed. Wc remained five days in the place, and after many ineffectual attempts succeeded in leaving. At the gate we were treated to another hostile demonstration, and some of our men were mauled. Eventually the expedition reached Ben Ghazi. the coast, whence it retained to Tripoli and Malta.