But the most promising side from which to reach Owanat seems to be from the east, using Bir Natrun, Legia, Selima or Terfawi as a jumping-off point. My information as to Merga was derived from several informants whose intelligence—with one exception—all agreed in the distance and bearings from Bir Natrun and Legia, so, assuming these two places to be correctly placed on the map, the position of Merga is not likely to be very far in error. The “Egyptian Oasis”—if it exists—would make a still better starting-point. Assuming that it does, there should be no difficulty in discovering it, as it would only be necessary to follow the line of the sand dunes until it was sighted.
APPENDIX II
INSECTS COLLECTED IN THE LIBYAN DESERT
THE collections of insects made in my first two seasons in the Libyan Desert were presented to the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, who in return very kindly undertook to “name” the specimens. Unfortunately, however, they were dispersed among the different departments of the museum before they had been identified, and I am told that the specimens cannot now be traced. This is to be regretted as no other collections have been made anywhere near the parts from which they came, and it would have been of great interest to see how far the influence of the strongly predominating northerly winds of the desert had affected the distribution of the various species.
The list given below is that of the insects collected in my last season. Unfortunately the conditions under which the journey was made prevented many specimens from being obtained from the more central parts of the desert.
The majority of those here mentioned are now in the Tring Museum, where they were most kindly identified for me by Lord Rothschild. The remainder of them are in the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, to the staff of which I am indebted for their kindness in naming them.
Some of the specimens, however, sent to this museum are not included in the list, as owing “to their condition or for some other reason” they could not be identified.
I. IDENTIFIED AT TRING
Arctiidæ