Arabia Felix: Across the Empty Quarter of Arabia

Abstract

THIS book embodies so many important contributions to the common stock of scientific knowledge that the reader marvels that one man should have been able, within the period of twelve months, unaided by public funds or private beneficence, to accomplish so much. Mr. Bertram Thomas, who crossed the great empty quarter of Arabia, an area hitherto wholly unknown, as great as France and Germany combined, just a year ago, approached his task in a purely scientific spirit, after years of patient preparation. Having learned on board H.M.'s ships to fix his position by the stars, he has produced an excellent map, full of topographical and other details, which would do credit to a trained survey party. He was at pains to measure heads with callipers, and to describe systematically the features of the tribes he encountered, hitherto wholly unrecorded, and in a valuable appendix Sir Arthur Keith and Dr. Krogman discuss the anthropological material he has amassed, on which they place a high value. Mr. Thomas collected everything he saw, and preserved his specimens so effectively that Dr. Caiman and his colleagues at South Kensington, who have contributed another lengthy and valuable section, have been able to describe a baker's dozen of specimens new to science, and very many hitherto unrecorded in Arabia.

Arabia Felix: Across the Empty Quarter of Arabia.

By Bertram Thomas. With a Foreword by T. E. Lawrence and Appendix by Sir Arthur Keith. Pp. xxix + 397 + 48 plates. (London and Toronto: Jonathan Cape, 1932). 25s. net.