“CROSSING THE SAHARA”

Hokitika Guardian, 12 March 1924, Page 1

“CROSSING THE SAHARA”

FEAT OF MARVELLOUS ENDURANCE. LONDON, Jan. 26. A new travel film of absorbing interest is showing at the Palace Theatre, and in its particular category one can imagine nothing finer or ntoro instructive. Indeed, it stands quite alone. By “Crossing the Great Sahara” Captain Angus Buchanan has made unique history, and despite the many trials that must have been experienced in that great journey of 3500 miles, occupying fifteen months, the hero of it all refers to it in the simplest and most unassuming way. But the pictures tell their own tale. Previously, Captain Buchanan had boon half-way across the desert, this time lie went right across from Lagos to Algbu's. accompanied by a white companion. Alt' T. A. Glover, (cinematograph photographer), and by fifteen Arabs. Only two of the latter survived the journey, and the white camel (Fori X’Gashi), winch was his own faithful steed, died within a few bouts of reaching Tonggourt and its welcoming French officers. At one time the caravan consisted of seven miles of camels in one long train.

Captain Buchanan himself looks as if he had gone through many trials, in mi undertaking which seems almost beyond human endurance, but he makes no mention of them. He appears in his travelling kit, which consisted of ti useful shirt, of a kilt improvised by himself in the desert, out of a blue and white checked Scottish rug. The sporran was also made in the desert, from the beard of a mountain goat, mounted with some tin irom a biscuit Imix. The kilt had to be put together hurriedly when tho short pants originally worn become too shredded to be trusted any longer. “The Crossing of the Sahara,” lie observed, “reminds one ol crossing Shaftsburv Avenue or Picadilly. It has the same dangers. W’liat you require in the desert, as you require iu Piccadilly, is acuteness arnr watchfulmis. If you exercise care and precaution you will get through.”

Apart from the film itself, which was merely a secondary consideration, the main purpose of the expedition, which was made possible by Lord Rothschild, was to collect now specimens, chiefly of bird and animal life, and these will subsequently he placed in the British museum. At present they are being shown at the Palace Theatre, and they include a desert-burrowing cat, the first of its kind which has ever !>een brought from the Sahara. Some twen-tv-iivc years ago a frenchman tiupped one of these creatures, hut the skin was accidentally destroyed before it could be got away from the desert. To Captain Buchanan, therefore, belongs the honour of adding this sole specimen to the world’s collection of wild animals. Porcupines, hares, Gerbils, ground squirrels, jerboas, stripe skunks, desert foxes—a specially line mounted specimen is on view—guuicnt'owl. partridges, and grouse are to bo seen in this interesting museum, as well as the photographic apparatus and the seat oil which the actual journey was made. . Rnrd Rothschild, in some preliminary remarks from the stage, drew attention to the world's debt to Captain Buchanan for his zoological iesearcl.cs. and the large number of mammal and |,j n l specimens brought by him trom the {sahara which had pivviou-ly never been seen by civilised man. Needless to say. these mre collections' were not .seem'd without much patience, perseverance, and endmanco. The hardships wore many and risk of life was run. not only m <■■”>- tending " ilh exhausting heat ami tropical diseases, but also in traveling through regions that arc trouble ■ raids carried out by llymg mm s lnnl-riding. camel-mounted robbeis. A CITY OF SALT. The pictures me intensely vivid and enthralling. A '<>„g " f vu,tur f the mud-wall of a city. « panoramic v ;e V , „|' crowds, leaving a lcvcc of the in.ii' of (Kiitsina. deserted villages, which the ever rising surface of the Sl-dnira is gradually devouring, a timid t ,x. and a graceful Duiker-autclope at a water hole, the track of the groat sa.t caravan from the town o 1 Lilnm to the Soudan, marked from time immemorial by carcases of caolcls and men. who have fallen by the way in i iie pitiless sun. There are the views ■if Bilma, a walled city in the heat ~f the desert. It is built around inexhaustible salt deposits. Its walls are M crystal salt, hard as granite, and oV (tv year a caravan of TOGO camels journeys to Bilma to barter food and eh.thing ami trinkets for salt. Buchanan joined this caravan for .security j-igaiiist desert bandits, and w secured tin; most wonderful camel |ftures even seen on the screen. He describes Bflma as a fortress impregnable as Gibraltar. Its 200 inhabitants are capable of holding their own against a force ten times their number. The most important regions through which the party journeyed were Northern Nigeria, the military territory o! Western Sudan, the mountainous 'O- - of Air and Al.nggar, the oases of L’achi and Bilma. and the Terntoi y ~f Oases. South of Algeria. Captain Buchanan stated that the Sahara was delaying, the elevation of the sand rising every year, as the surface of the recks was worn away and converted into dust. I’laut-life was undoubtedly perishing year by year, and in a hundred years, probably, it would be impossible to cross the desert at all, because the camels could not be fed. Captain Buchanan is the author ol •‘Wild Life in Canada." ‘'Three Years

of War ill East Africa.” and “Out of the "World North of Nigeria." He had undoubted qualifications for his recent gieiit trek, and one hopes that- it will not he unduly long before the film is seen in New Zealand, There is every indication that it will attract Londoners for many months to come. The pictures are shown to the accompaniment of music specially composed by Herman Finch.

Owing to the intense beat the pictures had to be placed in sealed Timms ar.d if these were opened the risk wa : run of the negative being spoiled.