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Mauritius Hash Trash 351

02-12-2001 Mare-aux-songes Alan Strong On And Sara Coffee Mate #351

Run at Mare aux Songes in the grounds of Mon Tresor Mon Desert Sugar Estate. Hares Alan “Strong On” and Sara “Coffee Mate”. Alan entitled this run “The Dodo & Treasure Trail” and issued an explanatory brochure to enlighten the more ignorant among us of a brief history of the Dodo and the discovery of skeletal remains.
(A reproduction of his brochure is included – Click here –)

     The trail was interesting and varied, covering hot sugar cane fields, wooded areas and some sandy beach with a nice sea breeze. Alan had promised us a series of lectures on our way round the trail but was too busy impatiently jogging on the spot and hinting to everyone where to find the right trail, that he forgot all about the history lessons. He did however lead us to a rock at the edge of the sea which is inscribed with instructions to find buried treasure (none found however).

     On our way back we were led to a ‘wine dump’ (much better than our usual visit to a rubbish dump), where he had dissimulated small bottles of wine specially ticketed for the occasion.

First Timers (Virgins):
Marlyse Ithier (travel agent)
Guillaume Lest (student at Curepipe College)
Eddy Palmer and Soon his wife
Jacques Schildkamp
Thomas Muller.

Second Timers:
None

RA: Down, downs awarded to:-
Several short-cutters
Clarel’s wife for wearing new shoes !

Smelly toilet seat award:
To Alan “Strong On” for making hints about the trail and not letting the hashers sniff out the trail for themselves as they love to do. Also for making too much publicity for his new book about the Dodo.

Receeding Hare Line:
#352 – 16th December; Jackie & Bob “J&B”
#353 – 30th December; Jean François
#354 – 13th January; Keith “Curly Top”
#355 – 27th January; Blob (Camping ?)
#356 – 10th February, David “Shorty” & Juliette “Snowwhite”
#357 – 24th February; John “Little John” & Charlie “Scrungebucket”
#358 – 10th March; Alan “Strong on” & Gilbert “Dodocop”
#360 – 7th April; Rey “Hot pants”

Food – line:
16th December; Juliette “Snow White”

Directions to next Hash to be held at 2 p.m. on Sunday 16th December, 2001
Meeting place: MUG club house at Phoenix (nearly opposite ‘Continent’ super market, look for a big cannon in front).
Note that this will be a red dress run. (Red dresses obligatory for all participants).
There will be a ‘Hash Bash’ after. Brian Wright has very generously contributed to the meal expenses, there may be souvenir T-shirts ready also. Jackie & Sylvia are bringing Xmas cakes. If any one else would like to help with a little contribution to make the party even better (salad, booze etc. ?), please co-ordinate with David or Juliette.

HASH MISH-MANAGEMENT
Supreme Beings:Tony “Barnacle Bill” Ward – TonyWard@intnet.mu
Trailmaster:Clarence Babet & Charlie Scrimgeour
Cellarmaster:Tony “Barnacle Bill” Ward
Hash Horn:“Blob” Latimer
Religious Adv/Sex Councillor:Eric “Hot-dog” Maard; deputy David “Shorty” Colbert
Barbecue Bearer:Dave “Shorty” Colbert
Ice Maiden:Peter “Long Zip” Attig
Ha$h Ca$h:Tom & Geeta “Tinkerbel”
Drinks for Wimps ‘n Kids:“Lord & Lady” Russell
Hash Market:Dave “Shorty” Colbert & Juliette “Snow White”
Gamesmaster:vacant
Edit Hare and Webmaster:Bob Russell assisted by volunteer’s
hash 351 dodo 1

Mare aux Songes
     The trail will pass around Mare aux Songes which played an important role in the history of the Dodo.
     In the 1840s, the British Government tried to Anglicise Mauritius by supporting Anglican clergymen to build churches and schools, where the English language was used as much as possible. One of the teachers appointed was George Clark, who was interested in natural history.
     Clark had already been puzzled by the fact that the Natural History Society had been unlucky in their constant search for bones. He thought that the reason lay in the fact that much of the land was either covered by volcanic rock or thick clay, which was not conducive to the laying down of deposits of such bones. The heavy rains would strike this hard floor of soil and rock and wash everything away into rivers before they had time to “get buried”. He proposed that the only possible places for success would be in the alluvial deposits found at the end of rivers before they reach the sea.
As he was teaching in Mahebourg, he naturally focussed his attention to the south-east part of the island. He noticed on his map that there were three rivers running into the sea, forming a rather muddy and marshy delta near what is now Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolarn International Airport at Plaisance. He assumed that if any bones had been washed away by these rivers, they would finally be deposited in the mud of the delta.
     Meanwhile, in 1864, the railway line was being constructed, and he thought that some Dodo bones may be found in the foundation trenches or in the cuttings being made to lay the track. To his disappointment, this avenue of investigation was fruitless. Then, that little bit of luck occurred ……….
     Some of Mr. Clark’s pupils reported that some Tortoise bones had been found in the marsh, near the area that he had thought promising before.

“I repaired to this spot, called ‘La More aux Sanges’, and mentioned to Mr. De Bissy, proprietor of the Plaisance estate, of which this marsh forms part, my hope that, as the bones of one extinct member of the fauna of Mauritius had been found there, those of another and a much more interesting one might also turn up. He was much pleased with the suggestion, and authorised me to take anything I might find there, and to give orders to his workmen to put aside for me any bones they might find. They were then employed in digging up a sort of peat on the margin of this marsh, to be used as manure ……”


     After many fruitless visits to the spot, Clark sent some men to where the water was about three feet (one metre) deep, and asked them to feel around with their feet. After some searching, a Dodo tibia was found. With this encouragement, they cut away a mass of floating weed which covered the deepest part of the marsh. It was here that they found most of the Dodo bones. The bones showed no cutting or gnawing marks, and had not been burnt; so it was concluded that the birds had died a natural death, and had lived in the surrounding neighbourhood.
     The bones had been preserved in the mud of “Mare aux Songes” for up to two hundred years. Sadly, the original eyewitnesses of the Dodo had long left the island, and the oral traditions of the local inhabitants did not include the Dodo in their stories, which would have passed from generation to generation …..


     After many fruitless visits to the spot, Clark sent some men to where the water was about three feet (one metre) deep, and asked them to feel around with their feet. After some searching, a Dodo tibia was found. With this encouragement, they cut away a mass of floating weed which covered the deepest part of the marsh. It was here that they found most of the Dodo bones. The bones showed no cutting or gnawing marks, and had not been burnt; so it was concluded that the birds had died a natural death, and had lived in the surrounding neighbourhood.
     The bones had been preserved in the mud of “Mare aux Songes” for up to two hundred years. Sadly, the original eyewitnesses of the Dodo had long left the island, and the oral traditions of the local inhabitants did not include the Dodo in their stories, which would have passed from generation to generation …..

     The astonishment of some very aged creoles, whose fathers remembered Labourdonnais, at seeing a quantity of bones of large birds taken from the mud in this marsh, was really ludicrous. “How,” said they, “could these bones have got there? Neither our fathers nor our grandfathers ever knew of any such birds, or heard of such bones being found.”

hash 351 dodo 2

     The description of Mare aux Songes, as it was in the 1860s, is given by George Clark himself:

     The Mare aux Songes comprises of an area of four or five acres. It is about a quarter of a mile from the sea, from which it is separated by low sandhills and basaltic rocks. It is originall a ravine…….      The Mare aux Songes and the lands around it were covered with thick forests at the beginning of the present century, now not a tree remains . A luxuriant growth of fern, sedge, and flags have spread from the borders over the deeper parts of the marsh, forminq a mass sufficiently compact to allow of a person to walking across it. This covering, by preserving anything beneath it from the action of the atmosphere, is probably a principle cause of the perfect state of presermtion in which the bones under it were found.

     The trail will pass around Mare aux Songes which played an important role in the history of the Dodo.
In the 1840s, the British Government tried to Anglicise Mauritius by supporting Anglican clergymen to build churches and schools, where the English language was used as much as possible. One of the teachers appointed was George Clark, who was interested in natural history.
     Clark had already been puzzled by the fact that the Natural History Society had been unlucky in their constant search for bones. He thought that the reason lay in the fact that much of the land was either covered by volcanic rock or thick clay, which was not conducive to the laying down of deposits of such bones. The heavy rains would strike this hard floor of soil and rock and wash everything away into rivers before they had time to “get buried”.      He proposed that the only possible places for success would be in the alluvial deposits found at the end of rivers before they reach the sea.
     As he was teaching in Mahebourg, he naturally focussed his attention to the south-east part of the island. He noticed on his map that there were three rivers running into the sea, forming a rather muddy and marshy delta near what is now Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolarn International Airport at Plaisance. He assumed that if any bones had been washed away by these rivers, they would finally be deposited in the mud of the delta.
     Meanwhile, in 1864, the railway line was being constructed, and he thought that some Dodo bones may be found in the foundation trenches or in the cuttings being made to lay the track. To his disappointment, this avenue of investigation was fruitless. Then, that little bit of luck occurred ……….
     Some of Mr. Clark’s pupils reported that some Tortoise bones had been found in the marsh, near the area that he had thought promising before.      “I repaired to this spot, called ‘La More aux Sanges’, and mentioned to Mr. De Bissy, proprietor of the Plaisance estate, of which this marsh forms part, my hope that, as the bones of one extinct member of the fauna of Mauritius had been found there, those of another and a much more interesting one might also turn up. He was much pleased with the suggestion, and authorised me to take anything I might find there, and to give orders to his workmen to put aside for me any bones they might find. They were then employed in digging up a sort of peat on the margin of this marsh, to be used as manure ……”

     The astonishment of some very aged creoles, whose fathers remembered Labourdonnais, at seeing a quantity of bones of large birds taken from the mud in this marsh, was really ludicrous.      “How,” said they, “could these bones have got there? Neither our fathers nor our grandfathers ever knew of any such birds, or heard of such bones being found.”

     The description of Mare aux Songes, as it was in the 1860s, is given by George Clark himself:

     The Mare aux Songes comprises of an area of four or five acres. It is about a quarter of a mile from the sea, from which it is separated by low sandhills and basaltic rocks. It is originall a ravine…..
     The Mare aux Songes and the lands around it were covered with thick forests at the beginning of the present century, now not a tree remains . A luxuriant growth of fern, sedge, and flags have spread from the borders over the deeper parts of the marsh, forminq a mass sufficiently compact to allow of a person to walking across it. This covering, by preserving anything beneath it from the action of the atmosphere, is probably a principle cause of the perfect state of presermtion in which the bones under it were found.

     The Mon Tresor Estate has tried to “rescue” precious site from oblivion by clearing and planting trees in the area.

hash dodo 4


Dodo and Pirates Forest
     The run will pass through La Cambuse forest which has been protected by the Mon Tresor Sugar Estate for many years. It is almost the type of forest that the Dodo would have been familiar with during its lifetime.
     Pirates used the shelter of these forests to rest and hide their “booty” (or even “beauty”!). This forest was used by Olivier Levasseur dit “La Buse”, which gave it the name, La Cambuse.

Seashore
     As you run along the seashore, think of the Dodo who used to scavenge here for crabs and snails during the months of September to December, when forest fruits were in short supply. The coastline itself has not changed much from when the Dodo was last here, 350 years ago.


Treasure Signs on the rocks
     If it is low tide, the run will also include a treasure message carved in the rocks.


Look out for Dodo bones !!!
     The Metatarsal shown has an actual length of 27 cm.


Look out for Treasure!!!
     Bottles of wine, hidden by Pirates of long ago, may be found on the Trail.


     This is Information (not advertising!!)
     Bottles of wine kindly donated by Alan Oxenham, of E.C. Oxenharn and Co. Ltd.

     Brief extracts from, The Dodo of Mauritius”, published (hopefully) this month.
     ISBN-99903-34-09-9. image Point Publications.

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