Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
gangs, and besides their numbers are necessarily reduced by
the severe action on the part of the authorities. Thus at pres-
ent we have nothing to do and are awaiting impatiently for
more boys to free us from our imprisonment.
It was a further two weeks before the second team left, during
which time Reid was severely bitten on the arm by one of the
two remaining donkeys. He was sent to hospital the following
day leaving Wilson and Wayland leaderless. Instead they had to
take Tasker, the garrulous and eccentric camp organiser, who
believed in reincarnation and that
'the ancients had some mode
of overcoming gravity when they built the pyramids'
. He was
going to be a great help in the field! They set out with only eighty
'boys', instead of the two hundred they really needed, but it was
hoped Tasker would recruit more on the way.
With little to do until enough 'boys' arrived, and with con-
cern mounting for Reid's arm, which they feared would have to
be amputated, Holmes and Barton, now the only ones left at the
camp, spent days in disappointingly familiar activities:
Monday: Today has been one of laziness and boredom. I
commenced to read David Copperfield but felt a singular aver-
sion to the high toned speeches which all Dickens' children
indulge in. Tuesday: Very long weary day. Nothing to do and
tired of doing it! Wednesday: Spent the morning in collecting
butterflies. Bathed and walked to Conducia Bay. Dinner,
bridge and to bed! Thursday: Spent almost whole day in trac-
ing maps. A holiday of this sort was little anticipated by us
as we came out.
But after a week of this boredom Holmes turned his thoughts
to the work he had left behind. Although he knew that Strutt
had approved the interpretation of his results from the labora-
tory, hastily thrust into Strutt's hands on the morning of his
departure, he did not know how it had been received at the Royal
Society where Strutt had read it on his behalf, after Holmes had
left for Mozambique. He greatly feared there was something
wrong with the uranium-lead method that made everything
