WOMAN’S TRIUMPH.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19308, 8 October 1932, Page 11

WOMAN’S TRIUMPH.

A storm of sturdy British handclapping, excited FrenclY'Bravos,’staccato Spanish “Vivas,” and cheers greeted Miss Gertrude Cat on-Thomp-son, the famous British archaeologist, when she described to a congress recently her remarkable discoveries in the Kharga Oasis, in the Nile Valley of Egypt (states the “Daily Mail”).

Tall and scholarly, with slightly greying hair, her appearance gave no hint of daring adventure. “Our camp,” she said, “was in the middle of the desert, amid desolation as wild as can possibly be imagined.” Accompanied by Miss Eleanor Gardiner as geologist., she superintended 200 Arab workmen at the excavations, and set them a good example by getting up at 4 a.m. each day. In the wilderness of the Kharga she discovered fossil springs use by man probably 35,000 years ago. and she described the find with masterly skill. By these long-dead springs she found hundreds of prehistoric weapons and tools, many of which were shown for the first time to the congress delegates. Dangers of the desert Miss Cat on-Thompson faced unflinchingly—she flew across the site of the excavations in an-aero-plane, and took her own air pictures, but when the storm of applause broke she blushed and, like a shy schoolgirl recited a little speech of thanks and sat down quickly.