DISCOVERY 



227 



is to the farmer. Only a few gleams, it is true, yet 

 appear to guide him on his way. Against him he has 

 arrayed all the forces of anti-vaccination, anti-vivi- 

 section, anti-inoculation and anti-antisepsis. Much 

 that he believes to-day will undoubtedly prove wrong 

 to-morrow. At least we hope so, for it would be sad 

 if our resources of to-day were all that we shall ever 

 command in the conquest of pain. But what man, 

 who sincerely studies the basis of modern belief, can 

 doubt that the great promise of to-morrow is foretold 

 and derived from the hard-won triumphs of the much- 

 maligned practice and theory of to-day ? 



***** 



The recent announcement of the discoveries of bones 

 of prehistoric monsters, at least iive million years old, 

 but beautifully preserved, in the Gobi Desert, Mongolia, 

 must have caused surprise even to those who have care- 

 fully followed up the investigations in this region. In 

 fact, the discovering expedition's report says that " the 

 first month of the expedition's work is far beyond our 

 hopes. Where we expected only fragments we have 

 discovered an immense deposit of large and small 

 dinosaur bones." 



For many years past the possibility of enormous 

 " finds " of early mammalian remains in Central and 

 Southern Asia has interested zoologists and other scien- 

 tists, and in this connection the discovery some years 

 ago in Baluchistan, by Mr. C. Foster Cooper, Superin- 

 tendent of the Museum of Zoology at Cambridge 

 University, of the bones of that giant prehistoric 

 animal, the Baluchitherium, evoked great interest. 

 Since then the American Museum of Natural History, 

 New York, has dispatched several successive expedi- 

 tions to investigate the more central Asiatic region of 

 the Gobi Desert. It may be recalled that the expedi- 

 tion of 1922 discovered vast fossil fields, rich cretaceous, 

 tertiary deposits, the skull of a baluchitherium, the 

 complete skeletons of some small dinosaurs, and the 

 remains of two thousand mammals. 



***** 



This year's expedition, under the leadership of Mr. 

 Roy Chapman Andrews, has been even more successful. 

 As the report of the discoveries has only just reached 

 New York via Pekin, it is impossible as yet to give 

 full details, but the " finds " include herbivorous d.no- 

 saurs 30 feet long of the Iguadon type, and smaller 

 carnivorous species, the skull of a giant rhinoceros, 

 " almost as perfect as though the animal had died a 

 week ago," the remains of a huge dog-like carnivore, 

 and the teeth and jaws of an " ancestral tapir-like 

 animal." It is obvious that the expedition has made 

 the richest " find " of prehistoric animal life ever re- 

 corded, and that this " find " almost conclusively proves 

 that the mammalian life, which subsequently spread 

 to Europe and America, originated in Central Asia. 



A Transatlantic Airship 

 Service 



By Major W. T. Blake 



Plans for the airship service between Europe and 

 South .\merica have now been completed and the 

 preliminary work is already in hand. The scheme 

 originated in Spain, the King being largely responsible 

 for its inception, and the company to operate the 

 airships is Spanish, with Spanish capital. 



When the scheme was mooted, the company called 

 in the Zeppelin firm and obtained from them the 

 exclusive right to the use of Zeppelin airships for 

 communications between the Latin-American coun- 

 tries and between these and the rest of the world, 

 among the conditions being a proviso that the ships 

 should be constiaicted in Spain under the supervision 

 of German engineers. 



The technical report of the Zeppelin Company gives 

 plans for the building of airships of a larger size than 

 any so far constructed, though these ships are only a 

 step towards much larger vessels when the service 

 has proved its reliabUity and paying capacity. The 

 design is for an airship of medium speed and a moderate 

 lift. 



The principal dimensions are as follows : 



Capacity . . 135,000 cub. metres (4,500,000 cub. ft.) 

 ■ Overall length . . 250 metres (825 ft.) 

 Maximum cross-section 33'8 metres (no ft.) 

 Overall height . 37 metres (122 ft.) 

 Maximum width, in- 

 cluding airscrews . 36 metres (iig ft.) 

 Lift . . . 141,500 kg. (139 tons) 

 Useful load . . 75,000 kg. (73-8 tons) 

 Commercial load . 15,000 kg. (14-75 tons) 

 Engines . . . Nine, 400 h.p. each 

 Maximum speed . 132 k.p.h. (82-5 m.p.h.) 

 Cruising speed . .no k.p.h. (68-5 m.p.h.) 

 Range . . . 12,000 km. (7,500 miles) 

 Accommodation . 40 passengers, mails, and goods 



Liners of the Air 



The body of the ship consists of a rigid light -metal 

 framework, fabric-covered, containing seventeen gas- 

 bags. This framework is of the normal Zeppelin type, 

 consisting of longitudinal girders and a system of 

 main transverse frames with bracing, secondary 

 frames without bracing, and diagonal bracing of the 

 rectangular intervals between the girders. The main 

 transverse frames divide the ship into compartments, 

 in which the gas-bags are contained. 



The usual stabilising and control surfaces are fitted. 

 There are four pairs of engine cars identical in design, 

 which are suspended on either side amidships, the 

 ninth motor being situated centrally aft. The pas- 



