In 1916 a Slab with Tracks of Climactichnites found in Arabia was donated to the British Museum of Natural History by Captain W. H. I. Shakespear

Captain William Shakespear (1878-1915) ... soldier, diplomat, amateur photographer, botanist, geographer and not least, an adventurer.  He was the second British explorer to cross Arabia from east to west and seemed to have done it in some style.      ( Peter Vincent, 2008)

For some time I’ve been thinking of writing a blog posting on oddities relating to Climactichnites and Protichnites that I’ve uncovered in my research.   One odd reference that my research turned up is a mention of the acquisition of a slab with tracks of Climactichnites from Arabia in the accounts of the British Museum for the Year ending the 31st day of March 1916.   If the slab from Arabia does indeed bear the trace fossil Climactichnites it would be quite interesting, as Climactichnites has thus far been reported only from late Cambrian littoral sandstones of North America, from occurrences in Texas, Wisconsin, Missouri and New York State in the United States and Quebec and Ontario in Canada.

The reference to the donated slab is as follows:

Return British Museum.   1916
British Museum - British Museum (Natural History)
page 132: V.– Acquisitions.
A. – By Donation.
page 137:  Tracks. — A slab with tracks (Climatichnites), four specimens illustrating wind-action, and two fragments of limestone, obtained by the donor on his journey across Northern Arabia from Koweit to Suez (Geographical  Journal., vol. xliv, p. 96 ; 1914). Capt. W. H. T. Shakespear. 
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/110734#page/411/mode/1up

[Note that in addition to the misspelling of Climactichnites, the British Museum’s report contains a typographic error in Captain William Henry Irving Shakespear’s initials:  W. H. T. Should be W. H. I.]

Intriguingly, the donor of the slab, Captain Shakespear, was a  British army officer, diplomat, explorer, amateur botanist, and amateur photographer, most famous for being the first European to meet Ibn Saud, the founder of Saudi Arabia, for his friendship with Ibn Saud, for his photographs taken in Arabia, and for his trek across Arabia mentioned above.  Though not as well known as T. E. Lawrence (more commonly known as Lawrence of Arabia), Captain Shakespear performed similar duties for the British in Arabia as those performed by T. E. Lawrence.    While T. E. Lawrence survived the First World War, Captain Shakespear was killed in action in January, 1915 in a battle between Ibn Saud's army and the army of Ibn Rashid, who was an ally of the Ottoman Turks.

The reference to the donation of the slab in Return British Museum (1916) refers to an article in the Geographical Journal.  Here is the whole of that article, which appeared in the column with the heading ‘The Monthly Record’:

“Captain Shakespear’s Journey across Northern Arabia.– It was announced from Cairo early in June that Captain Shakespear, British Resident at Koweit, on the Persian gulf, had just passed through, after completing a journey across Northern Arabia from Koweit to Suez.  The route followed is only briefly indicated as passing through Riadh, Boreidah and El Jauf (or Jauf al Amir), but it is stated that between the last two places it was one not previously traversed. Riadh and Boreiday have been visited within the past two years by both the Danish traveler, Mr. Barclay Raunikier (Journal, vol. 40, p. 331) and by Captain Leachman (ibid, vol. 43, pp. 500 et seq.) though neither of these took the direct route between Koweit and Riadh.  It remains to be seen whether, and to what extent, the traveler deviated from the route of his predecessors in this part of the journey.  Captain Shakespear has since reached this country.”

The Geographical Journal, Vol. 44, No. 1, Jul., 1914, pp. 95-103 at page 96
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1778799

That report does not do justice to Captain Shakespear’s trek.   In 1914 Shakespear completed a three and a half month, 2,900-kilometre (1,810 mile) journey from Kuwait to Riyadh and on to Aqaba via the Nafud Desert, which he mapped in great detail, taking and developing photographs along the way.  Almost two-thirds of Shakespear's 1,800-mile route was uncharted territory, which he mapped for the first time. Shakespear was an accomplished horse and camel rider, an expert shot and was fluent in Arabic (as well as Punjabi, Urdu, Pushtu and Farsi).   On February 3, 1914 Shakespear left Koweit with a caravan of 10 men, 7 riding camels, 11 baggage camels, 4 sheep and a camera that required the plates to be developed on site.   By mid- May Shakespear had made it to Suez (with fewer camels and men) and Cairo.   Douglas Carruthers (1922), who wrote a detailed description of Captain  Shakespear’s trek,  mentions (at page 324) that  “Shakespear’s trans-Arabian journey covered 1200 miles of unknown territory. ... For the whole distance, 1810 miles, Shakespear kept up a continuous route-traverse, checked at intervals by observations for latitude. He also took, as on his previous journey,  hypsometric readings for altitude, which give a most useful string of heights between the Gulf and the Hijaz Railway.   ... Routes that had hitherto been mere conjecture could now be drawn more or less accurately, many errors were put right, and many a problem solved."  The information Captain Shakespear provided  proved useful to the British War Office and was used when preparing maps of Arabia.

Douglas Carruthers’ (1922) article is entitled  “Captain Shakespear’s Last Journey” and  appeared in volume 59 of the Geographical Journal:  Part 1 in issue number 5, May 1922, at pages  321-334; Part 2 in issue number 6, June 1922, at pages  401-418.  The article includes  numerous photographs taken by Captain Shakespear on his trek and a detailed map.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1780609
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1780633

Carruthers notes (page 325) that “Shakespear set out on his last journey with the full intention of gathering as much geographical knowledge as possible” and mentions that Shakespear noted that buildings were made of limestone (page 327), describes sand dunes (328-9, etc.), indicates the direction of waterflow (333) and the headwaters for certain streams, identified  basalt (page 415) and identified sandstone ridges (page 416).    Carruthers (in footnotes at pages 412-3) mentions that “ Shakespear made some interesting natural history observations on these stages.  His men dug out a wolf’s earth (like the jackal the Eastern wolves go to ground) and he kept and nursed one of the pups for some time.  Later, three days east of Jauf, he was brought an ostrich chick. ...Shakespear also found Hubara Bustard eggs on April 11, and he caught and bottled the venomous Horned Viper, Umm Jeneyb, and another called Zarag (this is described by Huber as Zerraq, a common harmless variety, attaining a length of 4-5 feet).”    Carruthers article makes no mention of Climactichnites.

A map showing the route of  Captain Shakespear’s trek across Arabia can be found in Peter Harrigan’s 2008 article on Captain Shakespear entitled “ The Captain and the King”, that includes photographs by William Henry Irvine Shakespear, that appeared in AramcoWorld,  Volume 59, Number 7, Compilation Issue 2008
http://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue/200807/the.captain.and.the.king-.compilation.htm

When that map is compared with a geologic map of Arabia and recent articles on the geology Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel, it is clear that Captain Shakespear’s route took him over Cambrian age sandstones, including  the Cambrian Siq Sandstone  Member and the Saq Sandstone of Saudi Arabia,  Cambrian tide dominated marine sandstones in Jordan, and shallow marine Lower to Middle Cambrian sandstone in the Negev region (Israel).   Those are the right age and type of rocks for Climactichnites.  Interestingly, the Saudi Stratigraphic Committee mentions that the Siq contains “fossil trails, which occur in the sand-flat deposits.”   Promising.  However, trace fossils have been reported from the Cambrian sandstones of Saudi Arabia and Jordan by numerous authors, but no one has reported finding Climactichnites (other than Brown, Schmidt and Huffman (1963) who mention  ‘Climactichnites’ in the text of their report  and in the description for a photograph , but use the term to refer to the radula marks of a large grazing gastropod, rather than to the trail defined by Logan).

A check on the location of the Arabian plate in Cambrian times reveals that it was not close to the Cambrian sandstones of the Laurentian plate  which have yielded specimens of Climactichnites.

My research suggests that Captain Shakespear had an interest in botany and  knew a bit more geology than is revealed by Carruthers article (Captain Shakespear was directly involved in Britain’s negotiations to provide drinking water to Kuwait and to acquire oil from Kuwait, and helped map parts of Kuwait), but is unlikely to have known enough geology to have been able to identify Climactichnites.  I suspect that the identification put on the donated slab was by an employee of the British Museum.  

I have contacted the British Museum to see if they have information on the specimen of Climactichnites.     With luck they will be able to locate it in their collection.

H.V.F. Winstone  has written a biography on Captain Shakespear entitled simply “Captain Shakespear” that was published by Jonathan Cape Ltd., London in 1976.  Though no longer in print it is available from Abe Books, and I’ll order a copy.   I’m particularly interested whether Winstone mentions the slab of Climactichnites and his description of an automobile trip taken by Shakespear in 1907.   Shakespear purchased a Rover automobile in Karachi and drove from the Persian Gulf  across Persia, Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, along the Adriatic Coast to Italy, and on to England —  an incredible accomplishment when you consider that in 1907 there were few roads, no petrol stations,  and that the Rover 8 was a small  two seater:  a single-cylinder, eight-horsepower  car with a  gearbox that allowed the following speeds:   1st gear - 8 mph;    2nd gear - 16 mph;    3rd or top gear - 24 mph;   reverse - 8 mph.

Captain Shakespear’s diaries, maps and papers are available in England.  They might be worth a look should the British Museum not be able to find the specimen, and should H.V.F. Winstone not have covered the specimen in his biography on Captain Shakepear.

I found a number of additional references to Captain Shakespear’s interest in botany and natural history.  I’ve provided them below.

An article on Captain Shakespear that is on King William's College’s web site mentions that Shakespear's collection of pressed plants went to the Natural History Museum, "in many instances the first of their kind to find their way to a western museum, where they remain as evidence of his wide-ranging scientific curiosity and his thoroughness as an explorer."

A few additional sources suggest that Captain Shakespear's collection of pressed plants from Kuwait or Arabia  was donated to Natural History Museum, but I could find little  record of this in the British Museum’s published lists of donations for the years of interest.  The volume Return British Museum 1915 reveals “An Egg of Eupodotis arabs from Central Arabia ; presented by Capt. W. H. I. Shakespear.” was donated British Museum of Natural History.    A check on the British Museum’s online database reveals the following two specimens:

– BM000598601, Family: Orobanchaceae, Genus: Cistanche, Species: lutea, Country: Saudi Arabia , recorded by William Henry Irvine Shakespear.    
– 1920.1.19.2, Scientific name: Felis lybica iraki Cheesman 1920; Class: Mammalia; Order: Carnivora; Locality: Koweit, north-eastern Arabia on the Persian Gulf ; Recorded by: Shakespeare WH;  Collection date: 5 / 1913; Type status: HOLOTYPE ; Other catalog numbers: NHMUK:ecatalogue:4286709; Part type: Skull     http://data.nhm.ac.uk/object/f0cf46ba-5e84-4bbb-9421-009d738565d4

James P. Mandaville (1990), in a book entitled ‘Flora of Eastern Saudi Arabia’ mentions that “Captain W. H. I. Shakespear , was the son of a former Indian forestry officer and according to Blatter (1933) collected plants at Kuwait that were sent to the British Museum.”    Professor Blatter commented briefly on Shakespear:  “1915.– Shakespear, William Henry.– He joined the Indian Army in 1898 and entered the political service in 1903.   Was political agent at Koweit.  Here he made a collection of plants which are at the British Museum.  He was killed in the course of tribal fighting in 1915.”

Christopher Brett
Ottawa, Ontario

Addendum (October 24, 2018)
I have finished reading H.V.F. Winstone’s biography on Captain Shakespear, which  contains numerous references to sand dunes, but few references to rocks and no mention of climactichnites or any other fossil. 

For the trip across Arabia Winstone (at page 173)  quotes from Captain Shakepear’s diary notes from Tuesday, April 28, 1914, as follows:
“Off early over very flat plain until we reached top of Jauf basin.  Got some bearings to hills, etc.  Descent into Jauf drops over four successive ledges, a white limestone, and red slatey-looking close-grain stone, similar to that at Majmaa, and greyish close-grain stone, almost a green colour, and again limestone or chalk.  This is the order of descent.  In the basin immediately struck three new plants (or rather not seen since Kuwait), a red Hamth, Shigara and useless though pretty shrub called ... (must find out what this one is)...”

Winstone mentions (at pages 187-188) that upon Captain Shakepear’s return to London “[Shakespear] worked at a tremendous pace in his hotel room, completing his journals of the trans-Arabia journey and labelling his natural history specimens, ...  He was proposed for fellowship in the Royal Geographical Society... The collection of plants that he made on his way across the desert and carefully preserved, was presented to the Natural History Museum.  His botanical specimens were in many instances the first of their kind to find their way to a British, or indeed a western, museum; and they remain to the present day as evidence of his wide-ranging scientific curiosity and thoroughness as an explorer.  Another collection, left with Douglas Baird in India, was presented to the same museum in 1916 and in 1920 the Bombay Natural History Society sent it the wildcat he shot near Kuwait which became the named example of the sub-species felis ocreata iraki, or as the badu call it, burr.”

The Natural History Museum acknowledged receipt of my enquiry, but has not yet reported that they have been able to locate the slab with tracks (climactichnites) donated by Capt. Shakespear.

References

Ethelbert Blatter, 1933,
Flora Arabica, The Botanical Exploration of Arabia.  Records of the Botanical Survey of India, Volume VIII, No. 5, pages 451-487 at page 493
https://www.wdl.org/en/item/17115/view/1/49/

Glen F. Brown, Dwight L. Schmidt and A. Curtis Huffman, Jr., 1963
Geology of the Arabian Peninsula, Shield Area of Western Saudi Arabia
U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 560-A, 147 pages plus maps and plates.
https://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/0560a/report.pdf
The report refers to ‘Climactichnites’  at pages A106 and A107 and in the description for  photograph C in Figure 39, as follows:
A106:   Siq sandstone ... The fossils are Cruziana sp. (Not ...)  and what appear to be radula marks of a large grazing gastropod, possibly Climactichnites sp. (Fig. 39C), which is found elsewhere in the Potsdam sandstone of Late Cambrian age.
A107: “If this correlation is valid and if the Cruziana sp. And Climactichnites (?) bed 275 km southeast are Upper Cambrian (Potsdamian), the sandstone becomes progressively younger toward the southeast and represents and onlapping shallow marine tongue.”
Figure 39 – The Siq Sandstone... C. Cruziana sp. track in Siq Sandstone. Markings to the right of the knife appear to be grazing marks of a gastropod, probably Climactichnites (?) Sp. Of late Cambrian (?) Age. Near Jabal Abadiyah (lat 26∘24' N., long 38∘ 42' E.)