The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1903-05-01

Seeing the above in a metropolitan
weekly and being DESTROYS of renewing
acquaintance with an interesting old
friend, for he always had a new ex-
perience OF thrilling interest to exploit,
FASTENED up TO his fayorite club, and,
between pulfs Of Havana perfectos, !
obtained the following account OF
weird predicament which l give as
nearly verbatim as my memory allows
me:
The desert. exclaimed the colonel,
-rapturously. "Ah, my boy standing
ON the brink of the great Nubian sand
seas. one Is transhXed. The sun was
just paeping over the barren cliffs
beyond the Nile, tipping them with a
dull fire, when the order came to start.
My heart leaped. | forgot all dangers,
and thought only of adventure Of new
sensations. The chief guide gave the
word, and we mounted, giving civiliza-
tion. home, the very world itself, it
seemed, a single backward glance.
There were five Of us with guides
and men; and it was the third day Of
last March that we started over the
difficult trail from Korosko, taking
abe southwark trail toward Absoh,
leading through the very bowels Of the
Nubian sands. Our objects were d.
verse. My own was to discover some
rare antiquities of which / had heard
rumoTs, but the principal interest on
the part of the others was to rediscoyer
the abandoned gold mines of Ahsoh.
Knowing that the Nubians are con-
firmed in their Incidence and utterly
unacquainted with the modern methods
J1f prospecting, tho two experts of the
party-One a Californian and the other
an Australian-both thoroughly famil-
lar with gold-bearing regions, felt con-
WINGED that with patient effort, there
was a possibility of unearthing a for
tune and the exciting experiment was
at least worth the trial.
For four days our little caravan
snailed along the barren sands, pass
Ing El Murrah or springs of bitter
water, and all went well. Then the
journey, which for the first day or two
yaas full of varied novelties, began to
grow painfully monotonous. To make
matters worse, the geerbah skins,
which we're used to carry fresh water
from the Nile, were daily growing fat
ter. The wells of FL Murrah were sa-
line and heavy with brackish sediment,
and, though the camels drank of the
water without suffering ill effects, the
men who INDUCED freely were seized
with intense gripings. Two days south
ward from the wells a strange incident
occurred.
~Our way led over the beaten camel
trail, centuries old, and yet every
Tuonth the tract was obliterated by the
drifting sands Now and then we
route was pointed out to us by the
Wrreckage of former caravans which
had shed the sick and exhausted by
the wayside, both man and beast, leav-
ing them to the merciless sun and the
proving jackals till death relieved
them. There is no place on the face
of the globe where the survival of the
fEttest means so much as here on the
%ubian desert, where the caravan new
CT stops; and if the poor native cannot
plod on, no halt is made for his recoV-
cry. The consequence is, that the far
Their one progresses, the more skeletons
of men and beasts point the uncertain
way Through the drifting sands, and
the sight is surely most depressing.
@aJy camel was not particularly
fast one. He had a habit of tagging
behind, so that once or twice a day
the caravan was compelled to halt and
wait for me to come up, like lost
vertebra of a skeleton reptile. On
this occasion, while somewhat behind
the party, a fine young gazelle
crossed my path not dozen rods
ahead, dashing with sudden fright
into a little ravine which appeared
ito be closed at the farther end SO
that apparently he was made prison
e. Rife in hand, leaped from my
camel. Eagerly I made my way
through the hot, ankle-deep sand to
the little ravine, following it up some
distance ready to bring down my
game. To my surprise however,
found that there were several turns
beyond, and soon saw that my chas,
Was boOtless Dejectedly l made my
way back to my camel which had no
stirred, and seemed only too glad fol
the little respite from the racdnl
toll OF the march Taking gooC
,draught from my geerbah of water, ant
ar1i-,rr mn nnntnnr I drnnr tn