The daily Alaskan., 1913-02-25
A DESERT ENIGMA
Mystery of a Vanished Party of
 Australian Explorers.
LEFT NOT A TRACE BEHIND.

The Lsishhardt Expedition Disappear.
 ed as Though lt Had Been Swallowed
 Up by the Earth, Which May Indeed
 Have Been lts Fearful Fate.
 There have been recorded many strange tragedies of exploration in lone and distant lands but no one event of the kind has ever SO stirred men's minds as did the totsl disappearance of the we'll found and splendidly equipped ex- petition which Dr. Ludwig Leich- hardt, the Franklin Of Australia, led into the central deserts of Australia tn lS4S
 Leichhardt's design was to march right across the continent from the east coast t0 the west, and as-he had al- ready led a successful expedition near ly S.OOO miles through a previously un- known part of Australia, it was gener- ally thought that he would be able to accomplish the task.
 Still. there were some who doubted and prophesied disaster and more than one wealthy frieud Of ihe doctors re- fused to subscribe toward the eNpedi. ton ou the ground that they were not going to help him to commit suicide
 The members Of the expedition num- bered six whites and TWO blacks, an unusually large number for an eNplor. ing expedition Of this nature, and be sides being amply provided with dour, biscuit, tea. sugar and so on, they drove along with them dfty bunocks and 20 goats. They also had spare horses and mules in abundance.
 At that time the most westerly sta ton in southern Queeensland was oc- cupied by a Squatter named McPher- son. who dwelt on CoEOon creek. From there Leichhardt wrote a brief letter as he was about to start into the unknown land beyond
 That was the last ever hey I'd Of him or Of any of his companions, and this notwithstanding the fuct that eEpedi- ton after expedition was afterwaro sent out In search of them.
 As completely as though they bad been swallowed up by The earth, they vanished.
 This is the most puzzIing part of the mystery-its completeness. Had they been killed by the natives, as was at first wrongly reported, some relics Of the explorers would long since have been recovered from them. In some shape the iron work of the implements and arms they had with them would have survived.
 And what of the stock? Some of the goats, at all events, must have been left alive, one would have imagined, for these are notoriously hardy aui- mals, able to pick up a living almost anywhere. Yet none of these, nor any of the horses, mules or bullocEs were ever traced.
 The probability Is that the iIl fated expedition struck one of those water less patches Of country common in parts Of Australia. into which the blacks never venture. lt is not difficult in this case to prophecy what would have been their fate.
 Their reserve barrels once emptied Of their precious contents, the little water carried by the men in their canteens would not last more than day or SO. In the shadeleSs bush, in that terrific heat. death comes swiftly under such circumstances About forU-eight hours Is the limit of human endurance, Usually half that time sufiCes.
 The explorers, we may be sure, world struggle on to the last however, bus banding their water to the uttermUst drop. The animals would be the first to go. and the desperate expeiient of drinking their blood would be resort ed to.
 Hotter and hotter grows the air as the doomed men stagger further and further into the rainless desert
 Some lose their reason; an lose hope. Then comes the end They separate and struggle away in ones and twos, and fall md die
 Day after day the terrible and piuless sun looks down upon them wing there and sees them dry aud shrivel into mummies
 And still no rain falls.
 But one day, it may be years after ward. there arises a sandstorm of eX- ceptionaI violence The wind blows with all the strength and fury of an arctic blizzard. but driving before 1t sand. not snow.
 When it ceases the desert is there as before; the same, yet different Noun tains of sand exist where before were valleys.
 The mummies have vanished from human ken forever.-Pearson's Weekly.