Mysteries of the Libyan Desert: A Record of Three Years of Exploration in the Heart of That Vast & Waterless Region

Most of the scientific results I obtained during that time, however, have already appeared in the journals of the Royal Geographical Society, or other scientific bodies, so it has not been necessary to reproduce them. Many of the journeys, too, that were made into the desert had of necessity to retraverse routes that I had already covered, or were of too uninteresting a character to be worth describing, so no account of these was necessary. On the other hand, various incidents have been introduced into the narrative part of the book which, though they may appear comparatively unimportant in themselves, illustrate the character of the natives, and so supply data of an ethnographical character in one of its most practical forms.

The photographs which form the illustrations were all taken by myself. Unfortunately many others that I took were so seriously damaged by the sand, or heat, as to be unfit for reproduction. These have had to be replaced by sketches that I made from them—for these I can only offer my apologies.

The names by which the new places that we found in the central part of the desert are called will not be seen on any map. They are only those given to them by my men. But it has been necessary to use them in order to avoid repetition of such cumbersome phrases as “the-hill-that-appeared-to-alternately-recede-and-advance-as-we- approached-it,” etc.

I received so much kindness and assistance in so many quarters in carrying out my work that it is a little difficult to decide where to begin in acknowledging it. To the War Office I am indebted for the gift of the graticules upon which my map was constructed; the Sudan Office in Cairo lent me tanks and gave me much useful intelligence. Major Jennings-Bramley, Capt. James Hay and the late Capt. (afterwards Colonel) O. A. G. Fitzgerald all gave me information and advice of great value.

Dr. Rendle and his staff of the Botanical Section of the Natural History Museum in South Kensington kindly identified for me a collection of plants that I brought back, and in addition allowed me the use of their library while working out the geographical distribution of the collection.

For the identification of part of my other collections I am also indebted to the staff of the Natural History Museum in South Kensington. A collection of insects made on my last journey sent to the Tring Museum were most kindly identified for me by Lord Rothschild.

I am under a deep debt of gratitude to the Royal Geographical Society for a most generous loan of instruments; and last, but by no means least, I have to express most cordial thanks to the Survey Department in Egypt for the loan of tanks and instruments and for much valuable advice and assistance. More especially I am under obligations to the following members of this department: To the late Mr. (afterwards Lt.-Col.) B. F. E. Keeling and Mr. Bennett, for calculating some of my astronomical observations; to Mr. J. Craig for his kindness in working out my boiling point and aneroid altitudes; to Dr. John Ball and Mr. H. E. Hurst, who gave me much assistance and so far enlightened my ignorance on the subject as to enable me to take some electrical observations on the sand blown off a sand dune; the former, too, most kindly lent me his electrometer for the purpose of the observations. Mr. Alfred Lucas of this department also kindly analysed some samples of crusted sand that I collected in order to discover the cementing material.

The Libyan Desert, that in the past has to a great extent defied the efforts of all its explorers, is bound before long to give up its secrets. Suitably designed cars, accompanied perhaps by a scouting plane, our enemies against which even the most avid desert is almost defenceless, though one cannot but regret the necessity for such prosaic mechanical aids, they unquestionably afford an ideal method of conducting long pioneer explorations in a waterless desert. But these things have only recently been invented, and there are still many problems that remain unsolved as to “what lies hid behind the ridges” in the vast area that we know as the Libyan Desert, and speculation is so full of fascination, that it seems almost a pity that those problems should ever be solved.