BUSH ADVENTURE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20471, 4 February 1941, Page 6

BUSH ADVENTURE

VENEZUELAN SURVEY

UNKNOWN S. AMERfcA

LOST-RIVER EXPEDITION

MR. E. H. DOW RETURNS After an absence of three years spent almost continuously in the hinterland of Venezuela, during which he took part in an expedition which added materially to official knowledge of hitherto unexplored mountain country, Mr. E. H. Dow returned to Gisborne recently. Formerly a surveyor in the employ of the Public Works Department at Gisborne, he has been under engagement to the Caribbean Petroleum Company, and is now on three months’ furlough. In order to conserve the better portion of his furlough for New Zealand, Mr. Dow travelled home by way of Curacao, Dutch West Indies, New York, and San Francisco to Honolulu, whence he flew by the American Clipper to Auckland. He is hopeful of returning to Venezuela by air throughout, maK.ng use of the trans-Pacific Clipper service, and travelling down through Central America by other branches of Pan-American Airways. When he first entered the petroleum company's service, Mr. Dow found the surveying group representative of a 1 number of nationalities, but the outbreak of war saw the swift departure of all German employees of the company, who were followed into homeward exile by the Italians when Italy joined the war against Britain and France. British and Dutch interests govern the Caribbean Petroleum Company, and formerly the technical work of the organisation was supervised from The Hague. Nowadays Curacao is the technical centre of operations, while London remains the home of the company’s capital.

Mules, Launches, Human Porterage Surveyors with the company in the Venezuelan field spend almost the whole of their time in the bush, with their individual crews of 20 men, mainly recruited from native Venezuelans. The labour was good if the surveyor had the knack Of handling it, but the natives were temperamental, and would not work for a man who lacked the touch.

Mules and launches offered the best means -of transport through the hinterland, which was mainly untracked forest. Great rivers run into the interior, and one of those which emptied into Lake Maracaibo, the coastal oil town and port, was navigable by steamers for 250 miles. The steamers were shallow-draught vessels built to slip over the river-bars, and vessels up to 500 tons could steam long distances inland.

Between the rivers, mule and human porterage represented the main transport mediums, though for long-distance jumps air transport was available, airports being more numerous than good stretches of road in the bush. On the coastal strip, the llanos or plains served for the raising of cattle, and there were other products, but between 80 and 90 per cent of the value of Venezuelan' exports were in oil products.

Map-Makers’ Speculations

Surveyors had nothing to do with oil production, though they sometimes accompanied oil geologists in their rambles through the interior. The most memorable bush journey undertaken by Mr. Dow was in the company of an oil geologist, and nearly ended in disaster.

The object of the journey was to track through some unknown territory from the upper reaches of a river, the source and estuary of which were presumed to be known, while the central section was represented only by speculative dots upon the map. The party set out from headquarters numbering 50 men, including a Swiss geologist and Mr. Dow, and after 10 weeks they came out of the unknown, having spent the last nine days without food. Every man of the party survived, but some refused to resume the search, which was abandoned temporarily when food ran short. For the greater part of the time the party battled its way down the mountain reaches of the river, lowering boats by ropes, and finding tracks from point to point even at the cost of long detours around the rocky defiles through which the river roared. Many of the men in the party were recruited from levels between 6000 and 7000 ft., and they suffered greatly from leg trouble, which Mr. Dow associated with the constant reduction of the party’s elevation.

Work Suspended Through Famine

The outcome of the long, arduous and perilous journey was that a river mouth and a river source, previously presumed to be linked, turned out to be entirely without connection. That fact nearly spelt final disaster to the party, for the reason that supplies of food sent to serve them were not encountered. Mr. Dow’s survey had' convinced him well in advance that unless the river they were following took a big sweep, they would not come out at the depot, but it was not until the last possible stage that the party suspended its work and made a break for civilisation.

The last nine days of the trek were almost killing, and many men fell out by the way, to find their own way into safety or to be picked up by a rescue party sent out by the first to arrive at a source of food.

Venezuela and the adjacent Dutch West Indies islands of Curacao and Aruba have become more important to the Allied cause in the past year, and the occupation of the islands by British forces was welcomed by the Dutch inhabitants, Mr. Dow stated. The refineries on Curacao and AruM are key-points in the supply of petrol and the necessary aviation spirit for ,

Britain’s army, navy and air force, and any enemy action against them would he severely felt. For that reason, British and Dutch naval vessels maintained a constant octroi against raiders which might find a splendid target in the refineries situated on the coasts of the islands. The cruiser Ajax was formerly well-known to the peoole of Maracaibo and the Dutch West Indies, who took a keen interest in the destruction of the Graf Spee.