UNEXPLORED SECRETS

Evening Star, Issue 19772, 24 January 1928, Page 3

UNEXPLORED SECRETS

PURE TURPENTINE FROM TREES. Yet another attempt is to be made to probe the mysteries of the Amazon valley district by an expedition of Brit ish scientists,says the ‘Dairy.’ This territory, consisting of about 2,000,000 square miles, is one of the very few districts in the world which remain largely unexplored. Mr Charles W. Domville Fife, who has paid three visits to the Amazon valley, has been invited to become the leader of the party. He says: “While my previous visits have yielded a mass of interesting discoveries, 1 have not had the necessary scientific knowledge to reduce this material to any useful shape. Therefore a number of eminent scientists who are interested in the vast resources of this territory want me to take them there, so that if we succeed in probing even further into the dense regions of the valley they_ will be on the spot to judge the scientific phenomena for them ■ei'es. -.vie i»t these phenomena which I have already come across include a tree which, when a hole is bored in it at the top, exudes pure turpentine from the bottom.”

The financing of the voyage is being organised hj a well-known man interested in the unsolved problems of the Amazon, but who wants his name to be kept secret for the time being. The expedition will not be able to leave till the summer, owing to the necessity of avoiding the rainy season, when floods make exploration impossible, .