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Africa While Amundsen was starting north, attended by considerable publicity, and weekly bulletins told of the Bri- tish Royal Geographical Society's pre- parations to scale Mount Everest, a small contingent of French military men in Africa were starting secretly on an' expedition in which failure meant more terrible death than the peril of the frozen north or the heart straining climb up the world‘s highest mountain. A body of men lost and undoubtedly perished in the great wastes of the "astern Sahara Desert; camels travel- ing almost 400 miles without water over blistering sunscorched plains of sand and the unparalleled feat of tra- vuslng over 2,700 miles from Algiers, capital of Algeria, on the Mediterra- nean. to Dakar, Senegal, in 159 days across an unmapped desert-these are some of the details of a French mili- tary expedition into the heart of the Great Sahara of northwestern Africa. A FRENCH EXPEDITEQN CROSSES 2,700 MELES 05? UNMAPPEE) EESERT Brave Death to Explore the Great Sahara; White Men Travel from Algiers to Dakar in 159 Days at Head of Colonial Troops; Feat Unparalleled. Unexplored Centre of Desert GRAY-DORT MOTORS, LIMITED, of t1 THERE is now a truly beautiful car in the moderate price classâ€"and that is the Gray-Dort. No one who has viewed this new body design has spoken of the Gray-Dort as other than the unquest10ned style leader of its field. For years back, of course, it has been the leader in point of fine performance at low cost. 11 exp -that The French Colonial Office required more detailed maps of this part of the Sahara many months ago and opened preparations for an expedition, which, thongh highly perilous, was not an- nounced to the world until its success- ful termination. In order to minimize the chances of the expedition; failure it was planned to start two columns of colonial troops, each commanded by French officers, from either end of the route established. A detachment of civilization as the bare unmarked por- tion of the map indicates. It is the very unexplored centre of the Great Sahara Desert, marked by little more than oceans of sand and burned by the hotest of tropic suns. 11' eret tiv ‘ction a two; 11 civil â€"and it is rea'flz 600 ritory th of mile M ithel‘ ( detac Jam-it: 1( {111 rthern of the ‘1‘ t1 'Ize the At- The two leaders, after a conference. decided to start from E1 Mzerreb to the northwest, where an important well, named Abd-elMalek, had been reported as the central meeting place of roaming bands of desert bandits. This well had never before been visit- ed by white men nor military forces, and it was necessary to break the southward course of the expedition to explore the region. Native guides ac- companied the advance guards, who reached Abd-el-Malek on December 28. This little island in a sea of sand proved actually to be the rendezvous of bandits, and the advance guard cap- tured a herd of sixty camels,'which it was later discovered had been stolen in the Soudar the open (165 pursuit. Bu fleeter rarfiel: Mauritani Algiers on October 29 and on Decem- ber 21 joined the Mauritanian mission at E1 Mzerreb. platoons of native troops and a com- missary contingent made up the com- mand of Augieras. This officer left Ieeter ramels nthusiasm a [1-4 Tl Perished in Burning Sands if But ESE 1nd and in a sea y to be the n L the advance g f sixty camels overed had be The’bandits t, with the j the bandits and escaped d excitemen Iit I. see. of sand he rendezvous nce guard cap- mlcls,'which it 1d been stolen ndits fled into the patrols in 0 far rode whe 3.111 the the the was Dakar, the French cable station, which lies on a small peninsula more than a hundred miles south of St. Louis. From the well of Abd-el-Maleb to the nearest reported water; at Aguelt, was a distance of nearly five hundred miles, and to Dakar was an- other six hundred as the crow flies. Slimy Pool Saved Lives. A dozen days of travel across the sands brought the party to Aguelt, with waterskins almost empty. The wells here were found to be entirely dry, and the oasis had been deserted even by the hardy desert nomads. The situation was desperate. Calculations told the French officer that he might find wells to the west. The party headed across the Maktier dunes to the west and found wells, but still no water. Eventually, on the seventeenth day of wandering, and now without a drop of water, the mission reached a well which had been reported to them on a small oasis called Auchiche, and there found a quantity of very bad water. With parched throats and wheeZe, go with swered, swollen lips - followers lit< pools and dr ditic 1C( iil' tell int their fill y days '( mission reached been reported to ; called Auchiche, quantity of very Xu nt lroats and Is and his the slimy The old 11 a camel most an- Chatham, Ontario? of the ‘ DISTRIBUTORS and DEALERS thy Richmond Hill, Ont . G. Baldock Thornhill, Ont. reached Atar, the small desert town in Mauritania where the French gov- ernment maintains a wireless station. After a few days’ rest here the in- domitable Captain Eugieras started off with a small detachment of Sene- galese riflemen on a further expedi- tion eastward into the little known re gion between the Mauritanian settle- ments of Chingueti and Tedjikja. From the sandy plateau of Tagant he descended into the plain of Brakna, where the Moors breed zebus, the bx~ like African beast of burden, and sheep and goats. On March 20 the captain had reached Senegal at Boghe, on the Senegal River, where he was able to acquire native canoes and make the journey down stream to P0- dor. From Podor the regular river steamers carried‘hfin to St. Louis, the Senegalese capital, which he reached on April 3, and two days later he was able to make t1 dor. F steamer on April at Dakar gion betw ments of From the descended where the like Afril sheep and By January 19 the expedition had reached Atavr, the small desert town in Mauritania Where the French gov- ernment maintains a Wireleés station. water of Aouchiche was the providen- tial find that allowed the entire party to survive. U .> ' . Brillinger First Trip by White Men. ourney 1 Podo: arried-h capital made T1 1i Algiers to 1 Augieras ravelled of ri] ne th 1t ain )m