OUR DESERT PANORAMA 409 



the South Pole. It is presumed that he 

 sought to land his party on King Edward 

 VII Land, some distance from Scott's 

 intended headquarters, but, like all ex- 

 plorers who have preceded him in this 

 region, failed to find a satisfactory point 

 for disembarking, and was compelled to 

 continue along the great ice barrier to 

 Mount Erebus. 



The cabled advices have stated that 

 Amundsen was to inaugurate his attack 

 upon the Pole immediately, not waiting 

 for the winter to pass before beginning 

 his advance. From this we infer that he 

 intends to take advantage of moonlight 

 and advance depots of supplies up the 



route during the brighter periods of the 

 polar night. Previous South Polar ex- 

 peditions have confined their explora- 

 tions almost entirely to daylight, though 

 Peary's success in gaining high latitudes 

 in the /\rctics was largely due to the fact 

 that he kept his sledging parties at work 

 during the full moon. 



The Japanese party is led by Lieuten- 

 ant Shirase. Like Amundsen's, it is 

 small in numbers. Shirase has not had 

 the training in ice-work that Scott and 

 Amundsen have experienced, and it is 

 doubtful whether the heroic spirit of his 

 party can prevail against the lack of 

 equipment. 



OUR DESERT PANORAMA 



FOR the convenience of such read- 

 ers of this Magazine as desire to 

 frame the beautiful panorama, 

 "The Hour of Prayer : In the Sahara 

 Desert," which is published as a supple- 

 ment to this number, a limited number 

 of copies have been printed on very 

 heavy art mat paper suitable for fram- 

 ing. The copies are unfolded, and may 

 be obtained by applying to the office of 

 the National Geographic Society and en- 

 closing 50 cents for each copy desired. 



The panorama is probably the most 

 extraordinary desert scene that has ever 

 been published. It represents a portion 

 of the Sahara Desert not far from 

 Biskra, and is typical of the vast billows 

 of sand which cover many sections of 

 the great desert. 



As we look at the oceanic ridges in 

 the picture we can easily understand the 

 terrors of the desert storm, which has 

 been described by many travelers. 

 We quote from Mary Somerville : 

 "The wind at the equinoxes rushes in 

 a hurricane, driving the sand in clouds 

 before it, producing the darkness of 

 night at midday and overwhelming cara- 

 vans of men and animals in common de- 

 struction. Then the sand is heaped up 

 in waves ever varying with the blast ; 

 even the atmosphere is sand. The deso- 



lation of this dreary waste, boundless to 

 the eye as the ocean, is terrific and sub- 

 lime. 



Duveyrier, in "Les Touareg du Nord," 

 writes : 



"The sand storms I have seen always 

 took the form of vast clouds of a red 

 color, appearing as if shot with fire, 

 having a thickness of 50 to 60 meters 

 and moving as rapidly as high winds, 

 sometimes just above the surface of the 

 ground, sometimes considerably higher, 

 now dropping to the ground, now rising, 

 but in any event moving through the 

 atmosphere like a foreign and entirely 

 isolated body. 



"On one journey through the desert 

 I had a near view of four such storms, 

 and a fifth enveloped our entire caravan 

 without our being able to escape it. . . . 



"The storm on April 28 passed to the 

 east of us like an immense reddish cloud 

 and appeared like a vast conflagration. 

 The likeness was so close that it might 

 have deceived us if the cloud had not 

 moved in such a way as to vary its 

 height with respect to the horizon. 



"It need hardly be said that while the 

 sirocco lasts traveling is very painful, 

 especially in the region of the dunes. 

 Stories are told of entire caravans being 

 engulfed by avalanches of sand. While 



