Evening star., 1935-09-15
African Exploration
By Frederic ]. Haskin.

When queen Elizabeth had promised
to outfit an expedition for Sir Martin
Frobisher for the purpose of seeking
the Northwest Passage, that famous
mariner wrote in his diary in bad humor,
fretting over the delay. 1t was a period
When many explorers were forth on the
seas. Sir Francis Drake was circum-
navigating the globe, Sir Walter Raleigh
was on the seas. and others were looking
over the face OF the earth. What Sir
Martin wrote in his diary, still extant,
was an expression of impatience based
on his fear that If there were continued
delay in his setting sail, there would be
nothing left in the world to discover.
Yet only this year a British expe-
dition has explores portion Of the
earth's surface which had never been
explored in modern times. This expe-
dition went to the Desert of Libya and
traversed unmapped, uncharted regions
OF wide extent. Africa is so huge a con-
tinent that there are many spots which
modern man knows little about Sir
Martin Frobisher died some hundreds
of years ago. but some people are still
finding things TO discover and. Incl
dentally, it was not until long after his
passing that the Northwest Passage
finally was found.
This African expedition was headed by
w. B. Kennedy Shaw and other members
we're r. E. McEuen, w. H. Mason and
Lieut.. R. N. Harding Newman of the
Royal Tank Corps. They travelled $500
miles in making a survey of this unknown
land in the interests of the Royal Geo.
graphic Society. and they came upon
many strange things. Three specially
built automobiles carried them, and
everywhere they went it was necessary TO
carry as extra weight cans Of drinking
water as well as water to serve the
motors. 1t was a hazardous iaunt.
Probably their most amazing find was
land where, contrary to all nature. ami
mails live without water An examina-
ton of the map of Africa will reveal that
in the southern portion of the Libyan
Desert there is not town, not an oasis,
not anything at all. No river courses
are observable on the map and even this
exploration failed to reveal that any
should be charted. 1t is unimaginably
dry.
That is the remarkable fact in view
of the circumstance that the exploring
party found one stretch, some $50 miles
long. well-nigh crowded with game. So
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hausted every possibility and found no
trace of water There were evidences that
rare and slight rainfalls did leave small
pools of water. but these quickly dis
appeared in the desert sands. There is
not a stream of any sort in the whole
region.
Entirely Waterless Region.
In spite of this. the explorers observed
oryx, addax, gazelles, giraffes, lions,
cheetahs. hyenaS, jackals, foxes, wild
dogs, monkeys and oStriches. They
brought back photographs of them. The
members of the expedition are scientists.
The purposes of the exploration included
investigations into the geography, topog-
raphy, fora and fauna and archaeology
of the unknown region. Their scientific
curiosity was especially aroused by the
sight of so many animals, whole herds
in some instances, in a waterless land.
They did find some vegetation Of a
character not greatly unlike what is
found on the Great American Desert
and yet not the same. 1t must be, they
concluded in making their report to the
Royal Geographic Society. that there is
some modicum OF moisture in these
plants, drawn from suppositious under
ground sources, which gives the herbi-
ferrous creatures the moisture that life
requires. The carnivores, presumably,
draw their water from the flesh of their
prey. The one thing certain, according
to these scientists is that there are no
streams, no pools, absolutely no surface
water of any kind. The inevitable con-
clusion, the report states, is that here Is
one place in the world where mammalian
life is actually supported without water.
1t is well supported, too, apparently, for
whole herds of gazelleS go careering
across the desert at an incredible pace
and the lions are strong enough to bring
them down.
This waterlesS region is known as the
Wadi Hawa. 1t is the valley of river
which ran many centuries ago and prob
ably was tributary of the Nile, flowing
to the eastward. The climatic history
of much of Northern Africa is uncertain.
It is, however. certain that much more
of Northern Africa was habitable and
productive than now. Even in the days
of the Roman Empire, Northern Africa
was regarded as a garden spot, and
much of the food supply Of the empire
was drawn from there. But the time
when the region of the Wadi Hawa
was habitable and productive must have
been centuries before RomuluS and
RemuS.
The party also explored region, some
500 miles to the northvard. which had
been partially explored before, but many
new finds were made This is the region
known as the Gilf Kebir. 1t is great
plateau. Steep cliffs rise from the desert
on either hand and make the plateau
an effectual barrier to passage in an
east and west direction across the Desert
of Libya.
Paintings and Carvings Suggest Life.
The expedition was able to win to the
plateau by going up the detlle OF the
Wadi Hamra This is long, dry valley
At some points its opens out broadly and
the beholder sees a sea of sand. Unlike
the Sahara, this sand does not rise Ia
dunes. Being sheltered by the walls of
the ravine, the wind effect is not fe4t
and the surface is as fiat as a billiard
table. absolutely unrelieved by any form
of life, vegetation or animal. The top
of the plateau is described in the report
as unusually impressive because OF the
absolute loneliness and silence.
The curious fact, though, in contrast
with the utter desolation of the present,
is that vestiges of long-gone life were
discovered by the explorers. Wall paint
ings and wall carvings were discovered.
and the archeologists of the party PROF.
nounced them the work Of Stone Age
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