An important part of my activities at Jalo was the making of scientific observations. I observed the sun and the stars to determine the latitude and longitude and took regular readings of the aneroid barometer and thermometer for the determination of the altitude. My observations on the latter point, when finally worked out in relation to barometric records made on the same days at Siwa, disclosed the interesting fact that the level of Jalo is sixty meters higher to-day than it was when Rohlfs ascertained it in 1879. He found Jalo almost exactly at sea-level; I found it sixty meters higher. I saw the explanation of it going on before my eyes. The drifting sands were climbing slowly up the trunks of the palm-trees and against the walls of the houses, threatening to engulf them. Some of the inhabitants had already moved their houses and rebuilt them on higher levels. It is the steadily accumulating sand, driven by sand-storms and gathering wherever trees and houses stop its progress, that has raised Jalo nearly two hundred feet above sea-level in forty-four years. The house I was living in, and at which the barometric readings were recorded, was from fifteen to twenty meters higher than the rest of the houses at Jalo.
In the taking of my observations I had to be cautious, for the Bedouins are suspicious of anything so elaborately scientific looking as a theodolite. They were sure to say that I was making a map with a view to coming back and conquering their land. The first time that a Bedouin chief and the man who was to guide us to Kufra caught me at my theodolite I had to explain hastily and persuasively that I was getting data for the making of a calendar for the month of Ramadan.
KUFRA
The native dwellings and date-palms are in the foreground with lake in the background
Abdullahi, who was of course not a Bedouin, was invaluable to me in the camouflaging of my scientific activities. In fact he was rather a specialist in the manufacture of those little inaccuracies that smooth the path of life and preserve the social amenities. One day we were using the theodolite some distance from the town. A native demanded what we were doing, and Abdullahi said we were taking a picture of Jalo.
“How can that be, at such a distance?” demanded the Bedouin.
Abdullahi had his explanation ready.
“The machine attracts the picture, so that it comes right out and flies into it,” he asserted glibly.
“But how can a box attract a picture?” demanded the incredulous Bedouin.