NEW LIFE IN DESERT.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 March 1934, Page 22 (Supplement)

NEW LIFE IN DESERT.

For centuries the camel has been the chief form of transport across the deserts of Syria, but during the last 10 years two motor-roads have linked ports on the Mediterranean with Bagdad and other cities of Mesopotamia. For centuries the caravans have crossed the desert at the narrowest possible point, travelling anxiously from well to well; but now speeding motors, independent of the wells, take an almost straight road across, and the caravan route is being deserted. Leaving Damascus in the early morning, cars can reach. Rutbah, half-way to Bagdad, before dusk. Rutbah was once a little oasis in the desert, but now has hotels and garages, so that motorists can stop for a few hours or for the night. The next stop is at Ramadi, 200 miles farther on. After the Customs barrier here is passed it is only an easy two hours to Bagdad. The whole journey can be done in 24 hours, the first long stretch being over hard ground where cars can travel at great speed. A new coach for 32 passengers, said to be the largest in the world, is expected to do the trip from Damascus to Bagdad in 18 hours.

The other motor-road starts more to the south, from Amman, through Azrak, where it is joined by a branch from the new port of Haifa. Then the track runs up to meet the first road at Rutbah, but this lower- route is less pleasant to travel, being extremely dusty. The wise men of the 20th century have indeed brought great wealth across the desert, not only to Palestine and Persia, but to all who take advantage of these quicker trade routes. FLOWER GIRL OF ARCTIC. What climber scaling an alpine peak to seek the edelweiss among the snows can compare in courage and resolution with Miss Hutchinson, who scours the Arctic Circle in search of flowers for Kew? This young Scotswoman, who last year was seeking flowers in Greenland, found herself in the autumn near the northern shores of Hudson Bay. Winter overtook her as she was' making her way by sea round Point Barrow in the hope of catching the last steamer of the season, to bring her home. She missed it, and was frozen in. Nothing daunted, she secured a dogteam from the Eskimos, and set off by sledge for Herschel Island off the coast of Yukon. Her journey covered 350 miles of Arctic coastline, and more than once the thermometer sank to 70 below zero, but she arrived safely, none the worse. And she brought her flowers with her; we may see them this year at Kew Gardens.