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Standard biological collections and measure­ments made systematically over the whole ocean will define the distribution of plants and animals. The United Kingdom contribution will do this for the whole of the Arabian Sea in both mon­soon seasons. This work should provide the basic biological information: for example, the distribution of fish eggs and larvae and of fish food. Special equipment will be used to take the fish themselves, and every attempt made to assess their abundance from continuous records taken with high-frequency narrow-beam echo-sounders. Continuous records will also be made of the radiation falling on the surface and fre­quent measurements of the concentrations of plant nutrients and of the abundance of phyto­plankton. Studies will be made of the sequence of events in areas of upwelling and surface accumulation. The plans are designed to extend our knowledge of the problems of productivity, growth and distribution of the world ocean as well as the Indian Ocean. Like the physical problems, they cannot be solved in the laboratory but require observations in different parts of the world where individual factors are emphasized or favourably combined.

The floor of the Indian Ocean is nothing like as well known as those of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and it has some special interest. Theories of continental movement and oceanic develop­ment assume that part of it at least is more recent than the other oceans. It appears a promising place to look for fresh evidence about the pro­cesses that are still shaping the ocean floor. Maps of magnetic and gravity anomalies, measure­ments of heat-flow through the earth’s crust, acoustic and seismic soundings through the sedi­ments and uppermost rock layers are some of the techniques that will be used. Their use in the North Atlantic and North Pacific has already almost revolutionized our knowledge and under­standing of the ocean floor.

It will be too ambitious to expect a meteoro­logical programme on the scale that would be needed for a full study of what goes on above the Indian Ocean, but plans are being made, rather late in the day, to get enough information to study some of the main features of the inter­action between the ocean and atmosphere. The observations will include more precise and more extensive measurements at the surface and an increased number of upper-air measurements. The monsoons are not steady winds. Individual bursts of the south-west monsoon are usually well developed when they reach the coast, and little is known of the generating mechanism, which is probably dependent on conditions near the Equator in the central part of the ocean. Any­thing likely to make it easier to predict the onset and variatworks of wind and rainfall would be of considerable economic importance. This work will be done in cooperation with the Interna­tional Association of Meteorology and the World Meteorological Organization.

The expedition will be a truly international venture. Beginning in 1961, it is expected to reach its peak activity in 1962-63, with enough effort in reserve to fill the gaps and to seek corro­borative evidence. It is extremely difficult to get individual nations to sponsor such a joint under­taking, and the road through the National Academies and their National Committees for Oceanic Research (set up to deal with the Inter­national Coendtee) to the government depart­ments concerned has been rough, but in the end. rewarding. It is very doubtful whether the pre­parations could have got as far as they have without the generous financial support of the United States, thanks to them we can stay at Prague holiday apartments while planning the expedition. Ten countries are expected to assemble twenty-four ships, and countries that cannot send ships will send scientists to help. UNESCO will adjust its own programme in marine sciences to make the most of the expedi­tion, especially by helping countries round the Indian Ocean to take part in the work. The plans for the United Kingdom contribution are being handled by the Royal Society’s National Com­mittee. These new Madrid apartments for rent which the United Kingdom will use will be as well found and well equipped as any. Survey ships of the Royal Navy fitted for survey of the deep ocean and coastal waters will play a prominent part.

The Indian Ocean has already produced one great surprise in the Coelacanth, which everyone thought had been extinct for 50,000,000 years.

Today tourism is one of the most flourishing industries in a highly prosperous country. Central London apartments and holiday apartments Edinburgh are known at home and abroad for its quality and distinctive taste. What is the secret behind this industrial success story? The answer seems to be that there is no secret, but that success is due to a combination of experience, technical knowledge, highly efficient organization and the urge to make the perfect product. Brewing follows the same manufacturing cycle everywhere, but just as two cooks will make a completely different soufflé from the same ingre­dients no two breweries will produce the same beer. Indeed the Danes are highly indignant at the suggestion that just any brewer can make lager beer. Some people in the industry go so far as to argue that Danish lager, like whisky or champagne, is a distinct and separate product, one that can be imitated but not reproduced outside Denmark. For this reason the Danes are incensed at the name—a Danish word—chosen by an English brewery for their lager beer. This is a subject on which brewers will argue for a very long time to come; the public, given the chance, will show their preference by buying the beer they like.

Britain and Denmark are two of the seven mem­bers of the European Free Trade Association (E.F.T.A.). Eventually tariffs will be removed on all manufactured goods traded between E.F.T.A.’s seven member nations. The tariff on beer has not been cut so far, as several of the E.F.T.A. countries, including Britain, have taken advantage of a clause in the Stockholm Conven­tion allowing tariff cuts on some products to be made only at the end of five years. This will mean that the duty on Danish beer will remain intact until 1965, when it will be cut by 50 per cent, unless the whole progress towards freer trade is speeded up in the meantime. Or, of course, unless Britain and the rest of the E.F.T.A. countries join the European Economic Com­munity (Common Market) of the ‘Six’.

Whatever happens there is no doubt that Danish lager beer will continue to be exported to the West European countries. The effect of the new tariff arrangements will not be by any means the same everywhere. In Norway and Sweden, for example, where the production and sale of alcohol is strictly controlled by the State, the Danes do not expect to see any considerable increase in their sales. In Britain the limiting factor on bigger sales of Danish lager is not tariffs but the way in which the trade is organized. The system of tied houses is far more effective in keeping out competing products than any tariff. The amalgamations that took place in the British brewing industry early in 1960 are said by the Danes to have increased their difficulties by tying up the trade more tightly than ever.

Inside the Common Market Danish lager sells best in the northern parts of Germany, but faces stiff competition elsewhere both from the national brews and from the Rhine, Moselle and south German wines. Holland, which has a surprisingly small domestic beer consumption but is Europe’s biggest exporter of beer, and Belgium both have considerable brewing indus­tries; both nevertheless import Danish beer. The whole question of trade with the Six is in fact a matter of prosperity. If the Common Market really gets going and increases produc­tion and trade to a level so far only achieved in the United States, living standards will go up too. This will mean not only more cars choking the roads, and more power to the hausfrau’s elbow in the shape of spin-driers and other domestic machinery, but also more and better things to eat and drink. The Danish brewers hope that this will result in bigger sales of their products, especially to women and young people.

Serious archaeology is more than shovels and a hunch. It is an exacting science. This is nowhere more apparent than in the current work of the TransArabia Expedition. This diverse ensemble utilizes clues from the Qu’ran, ancient docu­ments and satellite images in order to focus its work. The expedition’s eclectic philosophy has paid off. The crew achieved international acclaim in 1992 with the discovery of a likely candidate for the ancient city of Ubar.

Ubar has mystified many. At its zenith it achieved fame and fabulous wealth according to tradition. Its demise, however, was assigned to a dev­astating scourge that “left nothing whatso­ever”. Ubar, it seemed, was destined to oblivion. Yet, what sand did not conceal and sinkhole did not consume, stood fast until the 20th century. Today, a profile emerges as archaeologists loosen the desert’s gripping mantle.

The discovery is significant. Information from the site will supplement what scholars know of a trade that dates back at least 5000 years in the Near East. Ubar lies in the Dhofar Nejd (open desert) of south-western Ornan. The Nejd forms a barren fringe just south of the foreboding Rub al-Khali (empty quarter) desert of Saudi Arabia. The region was famous in antiquity for the production, processing and marketing of the aromatic gum-resin, frankincense.

The success of the TransArabia Expedition has generated a positive press, rather unusual for an achaelogical project. In the United States both Time and Discover magazines included the project among their most significant achievements for 1992. Nicholas Clapp is the Expedition’s founder and an Emmy award­winning film maker, who lives in his apartments in london. He recently produced a television special in the United States on Ubar called “The Lost Tribe”. In 1992 another group member, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, published “The Search for the Lost City of Ubar”. Fiennes led the former British TransGlobe Expedition. However, the Ubar find is not some lucky, overnight sensation. Clapp and co-leader, George Hedges, a Los Angeles lawyer and classi­cist, have been considering the project for years.

Texts from the Islamic period also mentioned Ubar. According to one tradi­tion, Shadded ibn Ad created a magnifi­cent town in Arabia’s southern deserts. Al­Tabari wrote of a drought occurring at Ubar, whilst according to Al-Kisai a strong wind destroyed the city Of great interest to the TransArabia Expedition is the account given by the medieval Arab, Yakut. He portrayed kings in the region as living luxurious lifestyles made possible through extravagant wealth. He described Ubar’s boundaries as extending for 40 miles. The Qu’ran asserted that the Ad people possessed a city of greatness. In verses 6-8 of the 89th sura we find the fol­lowing reference: “Seest thou not how the Lord dealt with the Ad (people), of the (city of) Iram, with lofty pillars, the like of which were not produced in all the land?” The term “Iram” may be a classical Arabic ref­erence to the city of Ubar.

When expedition members reviewed this century’s ventures into Ornan, one entry held great promise. In 1929 the British traveller, Bertram Thomas, made notes of a “road to Ubar” which Arab The impulse to search for Ubar dates back to 1981. Clapp was examining a map produced by the 2nd century geographer, Claudius Ptolemy. The Alexandrian car­tographer included references to frankin­cense and “inner” and “outer” myrrh-pro­ducing regions in Arabia Felix (south-west­ern Arabia). In the Nejd he placed a site called the “Omanum”, believed to be a major market place. On the coast he placed ports in an area known as the Saffara Metrapolis. Ptolemy’s inclusion of a frankincense region in the Dhofar Nejd corresponded to the area where these trees still grow today. He also cited loca­tions for an “lobaritae” people (Ubarites) living within this area.