FROM LONDON TO AUSTRALIA BY AEROPLANE 



293 



renness. The land is athirst, but the two 

 great rivers, the Tigris and the Euphra- 

 tes, move sullenly on, ebbing their life 

 out to the sea. Turn back these tides 

 into the veins of irrigation and the land 

 will be replenished, Eden shall be again, 

 and even the valley of the Nile shall be 

 despised to it. < 



Exulting in the fair weather and fol- 

 lowing breeze, we swept over the world 

 at ioo miles an hour. Three thousand 

 feet below, the two great rivers conflux 

 and unite in the Shatt-el-Arab, with the 

 miserable village of Kurnah at the junc- 

 tion — a village built of mud, and its hu- 

 manity of the same color as the turbid 

 streams that bear the soil of Asia Minor 

 away to the Persian Gulf. Clusters of 

 date palms and a scant belt of vegetation 

 fringe the bank, but beyond a half mile 

 or so there is nothing but the dun-colored 

 wilderness, the miraged sky-line, and the 

 blue canopy where the sun rules king. 



All this once was the Garden of Eden. 

 Today it is not a delectable site ; but who 

 may speak of the morrow? The waters 

 of the Shatt-el-Arab, heavily impreg- 

 nated with mud, resemble the outflow 

 from a mud geyser, swirling and boiling; 

 they move oozily forward as their caprice 

 inclines, the silt is precipitated, shallows 

 form, mud-banks come into being, grow 

 into islets, and disappear with the next 

 flood. 



BASRA, A HIVE: OF ACTIVITY 



The flight from Bagdad to Basra took 

 just under three hours. The crazy river 

 barge, probing its way through shallows, 

 rips, and mud, generally takes a fort- 

 night ! Basra we discovered to be a hive 

 of activity. It was the main shipping 

 port during the Mesopotamian campaign, 

 and a large military base and aerodrome 

 were still in evidence. The aerodrome 

 stretches to the horizon, and with the 

 British camp extends for miles along the 

 eastern bank (see pages 271-273). 



We crossed over to the town in one of 

 the characteristic river boats called ma- 

 hailas — a Viking vessel strangely and 

 crudely carved at prow and stern, and 

 with sails as multi-patched as the gar- 

 ments of the crew. The town is an un- 

 lovely place of strange and variodorous 

 perfumes ; so after dispatching mails we 

 hastened back to the Vimy. 



As there was a Royal Air Force depot 

 here, I decided to delay a day and allow 

 Bennett and Shiers to overhaul and ad- 

 just the engines. 



A LONG DAY'S FLJGHT 



On the morning of November 23 we 

 made a daylight start for Bander Abbas, 

 650 miles south. Soon after starting, 

 the sun came up from the distant hills; 

 the world threw off its somber gray, and 

 in dawn's fair raiment became beautiful. 

 The delicate shades of pink that flushed 

 the horizon mounted higher and higher 

 until the zenith grew gay ; and so an- 

 other day of the flight had begun. 



The sunlight sparkled on our varnished 

 wings, and the polished propellers be- 

 came halos of shimmering light. Our 

 engines sang away merrily. The Vimy 

 ceased to be a machine and pulsed with 

 life, as if feeling the glory of the morn- 

 ing; my brother scanned the landscape 

 below, plotting off the course on the chart 

 and checking our position from time to 

 time by villages and salient features, re- 

 marking how wonderfully accurate the 

 world was created ! 



Bennett and Shiers had stowed them- 

 selves away in the after cockpit and were 

 reclining inside the fuselage with the 

 spare parts, endeavoring to secure well- 

 earned rest from their strenuous efforts 

 of the past few days. As the spare parts 

 crammed all available space, theirs was 

 painful comfort indeed. The dimen- 

 sions of our front cockpit were of those 

 adequate proportions generally attributed 

 to wedges. The weather continued fine, 

 but for the most part the flight was un- 

 interesting and monotonous. 



We passed over Bushire and several 

 coastal villages, but the only really im- 

 pressive sight Avas the ruggedness of the 

 coastal belt and the hinterland ranges. 

 Some of the country presents a remark- 

 able sight, and appears as if a mighty 

 harrow had torn down the mountain 

 sides into abysmal furrows. Fantastic- 

 shaped ridges and razorbacks rise pre- 

 cipitously from deep valleys barren of 

 vegetation and desolate of life. Occa- 

 sionally we passed over small flat plains 

 dotted with abrupt hills and flat tabletops. 

 The whole earth appeared as though some 

 terrific convulsion had swept it and left 



