THE LYBIAN DESERT

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 127, 15 June 1937, Page 7

THE LYBIAN DESERT

"Oue of Most Interesting Regions in World" ADDRESS TO ROTARIANS "Oue of the mo.Bt interesting regions of the world," was the way in which the Rev. D. N. McDiarmid described the Libyan Desert to members of the Napier Eotary Club yesterday. Mr. McDiarmid, who leaves Napier shortly to taho ixp a position as Direetor of Home and Foreign Missions for the Presbyterian Church, spent a long period in the desert before the war and during the occupation of the desert in the war years by Australian and British troops. This portion of the Sahara, from the point of view of scen'ery and cnovehient, was in the main one of the "deadest" portions of the great Sahara. Situated in the south-western corner of Egypt, bordering the Sudan, the desert lay— hundreds of square miles of elmost level, tawny-yellow 'sand, sometimes dofted by numbers of huge black boulders, seemingly scorched by the intense heat, sometimes strewa with flakes of a flint-like rock, resembling pricnitive arrow heads. In portions a black hillock of rock towered above the lighter sand, and nowhere was any sign of life. „ "Perhaps the worst part is the sanddune area, from 150 to 200 miles west of the Nile," continued the speaker. "There one iinds a huge line of dunes, rising to a height of 100 fept, with a gently sloping ris6 to windward, and a drop at the most acute angle at which sand will stand to the lee. It is impossible to crogs this area, many exploring parties having 'made the atteoipt, only to find that they>wero compelled to gkirt it. A great many stories are told about thepi, and one that I believe is true is of the Persian king, Cambyses, at about 500 B.C., who marched his troops to try and reqch the Farafra Oasis. Whon his guides deserted him, after puncturing all tbe water bags, 60,000 Persians were lost in the sand dunes. Army Not Tound. "That army has not been found, but they may yet be found, as the dunes are steadily marching forward, moved bj- the wind about 30 or 60 feet a year. It is a terrible region, and I can imagine the feeling of horror of that deserted army, in the middle of the dunes, with ®o hope of ever getting out. Underneath the whole area, the speaker added, was a vagt supply of water, this view being held by a majority of geologists. This fact explained an oasig, .which many people believed to be a small spring, surrounded by a few date trees. In the Libyan Desert, the oascs are huge depressions below the desert plateau, that of the oasis of 'Kharga being more than 100 miles long. In these places there had been formerly a softer portion of rock than in the surrounding desert, and the continual action of the north wind had scooped out thig depression to in some places 500 feet below the surrounding desert, and at times down to sea leveL Australlana In Desert. This depression in the desert was down to the water-bearing sandstone, and at intervals water had seeped throngh rifts in the rock or through ancient borings, foyming pools dotted over the area. "Herodotus speaks of the oasis of Kharga as 'the island of the bjessed, ' " continued Mr, McDiarmid. "I was with the Australian troops in that area, and as they slogged along throygh the sand they described the desert in general in language that was as graphic, but scarcely as complimentary, "It might be asked why troops were out jn that barren area in a time of war. When I was there there were stationed in the district the Fife and Forfay Yeomanry, the first and second Lovat Scouts, and Australian troops, as it was supposed that the Senussi tribes in the Sahara wore being aroused by European Powers to make a raid on the south-western portion of Egypt. "It is one of the most interesting regions in the world, and one that will , still repay a lot of explorjng," commented the speaker in conclusion. In moving a vote of thanks, Rotarian M. 3. Spcnce ref erred to the loss that Napier would shortly have in the dcparture of Mr. McDiarmid, and eapressed a hope that he might return at a future date,