Evening star., 1930-06-15


village. They were in our eyes at every mo-
ment; they crawled up our noses, into our
mouths, and buzzed incessantly in our ears.
I have put my hand out on table at Toug-
COURT and had it covered with flies in a few
seconds, and in the Hoggar, while trying to
photograph take notes, or when excavatng
the tomb the curse of the flies was too exas-
perating for polite words. We finally resorted
to having black wells placed over the helmet.
This made one hotter but kept the flies off the
face. We used to put sieves over the food
to protect it.
I shall never forget passing our camp one
day-at AbeesSa-on the way to the tomb and
seeing our luncheon, which consisted of a
hind quarter of a gazele that we had shot,
hanging in a tree. The meat was absolutely
black with flies. ate the gazelle with only 8
passing thought and wondered If the flies got
their fill.
Several times photographs have been spoiled
by fly walking on the lens and appearing in
the picture as vague monster. There were
millions of flies around Abelessa in the day
time, yet at sunset the atrocious pests COM
pletely and mysteriously disappeared.
THERE is one great blessing with regard to
the heat in the Sahara: it Is dry heat
and, therefore, not half so oppressive and
weakening as the humidity of New York or
the sultry Paris heat It Is so hot sometimes
that it seems actually burning yet I have
still been able to make some kind of an effort
which would have been entirely impossible in
the humid heat at the same altitude of the
thermometer. Seventy degrees Centigrade has
been observed in the sand dunes, and in June
in the Great Erg. have felt that my brain
was sizzling 1t is strange that after freezing
all night one goes through the heat of hell the
next day, hell that begins a few hours after
sunrise. The extremes in the desert are sur
priSng. We observed in the Great Erg
that vase of water, half buried IN the sand.
was found to be frozen block next morning.
OF course, the intense heat induces thirst,
but I have found one Is less thirsty if one
drinks less, and have been able to train
myself to a glass of water at midday and
another in the evening OF all the dreaded
ills of the Sahara, first and last, it is always
the fear of death by thirst that haunts one
and all 1t is land Of fear-fear of being
lost, of thirst, OF massacre, Of raids, of sudden
illness, and last but not least, the fear that you
may fail TO accomplish the objectives of your
expedition And when all Is done, the hard
ships borne, the journey ended the reward GER
tain and civilization and its security once more
a part of hfe-then to me comes the fear that
my next expedition may be delayed and some
secret of the Sahara forever lost.
My life ambition has been to cross the Sahara
from the Atlantic to the Red Sea, taking in
the last unexplored regions of the worlds
greatest desert. The trail would take us through
the unknown Rio Del Orc Ito which we are
now on the point of leaving to make a pre-
hminary survey, then through the vast un-
mapped region called the Djouf-1, 200 miles of
unmapped territoryl Thence the way would
lead on to Taodeni, and across the desoate
Tanezrouft to the Hoggar. In these mountains
we shall excavate the large tombs noticed in
1925, and complete the exploration of the other
chambers of the sepulchre of Queen Tin Hinan.
South of the Hoggar we shall explore the
lost city of Tokalet, said to be on the un-
mapped river called Oed Tafassasset The
Tuareg are convinced of the existence of this
lost oasis and ruined city, which they have
heard of from their ancestors. Emeralds and