Viewing page 19 of 108

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

the relation division library and with the help of Miss Petersen ran across several interesting books. 

Villiers, Alan  "Sons of Sinbad"  Scribners, 1940 an interesting account of sailing in Arab dhows and an interesting chapter on the dreadful life of pearl divers in the Persian Gulf.

Twitchell, K.S. - "Saudi Arabia" 1947 Princeton Univ. Press Chapter on Dhahran with numerous photographs. 

Prothero, G.W. Persian Gulf (handbook) 1920 Climate, weather, geography hardest shamals in April

Rihani, A. - "Around the Coast of Arabia" Houghton Mifflin, 1930, Boston  p.280 "dawl" a kind of apparent jellyfish with 2 foot tentacles dreaded by pearl divers.

Mar. 30 - I accumulated some jars today from Joe Martin at the dining hall, and alcohol and formalin from Bill Monyer at the clinic lab.

No dice on my stuff at customs, and the day was generally frustrating. Tonight we heard an Italian orchestra, and a meeting of the entertainment committee wanting information on how to spend its $30,000. I finished a letter to Lucile, and it was not a very happy one. 

Mar. 31 - I straightened out the ships larder with the commissary, today Mr. Shea, and got one jar from the Club.

This afternoon, I drove in a pick up to Ras Tanura, and stopped by the side of the 

[[end page]]

[[start page]]

19

same pond on the right side of the road near Sufwah and collected some pond weed, [[underline]] Cyprinodon dispar [[/underline]], 2 frogs, and a pollywog. The bottom was muddy and all the killies were up at the windward end in the lee of the sand. I found no burrowing tan beetles on the other side; they had disappeared. I also collected a number of snails. I saw a dragon fly larva, and a bright blue dragonfly, and got a dead beetle. This collection U-48-2.

On the Gulf side about half way out to Ras Tanura there were 2 similar salt water sand pools about 40 feet long and 10 feet wide and may be 4 feet at the deepest, one was larger than the other. I got 2 species of Lutjanoid young fishes, by attracting them into the net. This makes collection U-48-3. The fish were just the color of the sand except for their black eyes. 

April 1 - I got my things out of hock from the customs today. They were at the storeroom. I also got a hold of a few more small jars. This afternoon was used up in getting oil drums and barrels to be fixed for fishes. This evening the wind came up and it seemed cold out. I watched the dance in the patio, and actually went back for my overcoat. 

April 2 - Gurley intended to go to Bahrain today but a strong shamal took care of that. I had somewhat of a cold and spent the day reading the "Sons of Sinbad"; according the author Arabs use coral rock, lime, and mud to make their houses.