The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1874-01-29
Creating an Inland Sea.

An idea, says Galignani's Messenger,
was started not long ago on the practi-
bili6y of forming an inland sea in
French.A Algeria. There exi Is, south of
the Atlas, a chain of salt lakes called
Chett, that go from east to west,
following general depression, which
lies at an average depth of from eighty
to ninety feet below the level of the
Mediterranean. According to all proba-
bility, there formerly was a sea there,
of which the ChOtts are mere remnants.
1t would be easy to restore this inland
gulf by merely opening a short canal
connecting the Gulf of Gabes with the
nearest Chott, according to the descrip-
tion lately given to the Soeiete de Ge-
ograbie by Captain RoUdaire. who ras
himself surveyed the Mel Rhir. He
states that the Chotts situated south OF
Biskra are a series of shadows, varying
bet cen twenty 10 sixty kilometres in
length, and generally dry IN summer
They form a chain about 800 kilometres
(225 miles, long from Chott-el-Faroun
to Chott-Mel- Rhir, which lies in the
meridian of Biskra. An insignificant
chain Of downs or sand-hills separates
the Gulf of Gabes from Chott-el- Faroup.
The surface OF these shadows, as smooth
as that of a barn, is sprinkled with salts
of magnesia, which gives them the as
pect of being covered with hoar frost.
Tne western bank of Chott-Mel-R -Rhir,
at the mouth of the Wed-Oedra, is
twenty-seven metres eighty one feet)
below the level of the sea, and its bed
has a slope eastward of twenty-five
centimtres per kilometre, or four tenths
per cent. Should this inclination con
tinue as far as Chotb-Sellem, (sixty
kilometres farther easD, the latter
would be forty-two metres Q26 feetl
below the level of the sea; without this
being nscertained, tn e latter Chott lies
certainly lower than the Rhir. From
various cursory obser vations, there APP
pears to be no doubt that from the
latter to the OhOtt-el- F'aroun there exists
an immense depression, which might be
filled with the sea from the Gulf of
Gabes. The advantages to be derived
from this plan would be considerable.
Sea-ports might be formed at eighty
kilometres south of Biskra; the wander
ing tribes of those regions might thus
be kept in obedience, and the numer-
Ous and itch oases of the Sourf and
Wed.Rhir, whose dependence from
France is merely nominal, would be
effectuslly held under rule. The pres
ence of the lsea, moreover, would rem
der rains more frequent, and thus fer
tilize the country.
Proposed Ship Canal Across Florida.
The general increase of manufactures
in the Southern States, and the multi
plication of schemes of commercial
improvement, led us to hope for a
speedy relief there, of n project of a
ship canal across Florida. She as well
as her sister States of Alabama, Missis-
slppi, Louisiana and Texas, and espe-
cialy the ports of Pensacola, Mobile,
New Orleans aud Galveston, are vitality
interested in the success of the meas
ure.
Action, having for its object the hold
ing of convention in one of those
cities, should at once be taken. Such
a convention by awakening public at
tention to the vast importance and en-
tire practicability of the enterprise,
would soon place itself in funds, suffi-
cient to pay for an accurate survey of
the most eligible route across the pen
insula, the preparation of estimates of
the cost of construction, and the publi-
cation of an exhaustive report. The
taking of these initial steps should be
regarded in the light of a duty, which
the people of that section owe to. them
selves, and when the duty has been
faithfully performed, then let an ap-
peal be made to their Legislatures, to
capitalists, and if need be, TO the Fed
eral Government.
The most important, the most diff
cult and most Interesting engineering
work at present constructing in Europe,
is acknowledged to be the Amsterdam
and North Sea Ship Canal. This has
been undertaken to benefit the com
merce of a single seaport. To facilitate
traffic by water between the Gulf and
the Atlantic cities, is to give new life TO
the empire of the great Southwest
No unusual difficulties need be appre-
hen6ed in the prosecution of the Amer
lean work. Moreover, the wondrously
improved machinery for excavation, as
we'll as the better materials and meth
ods of construction, which the expe-
rienee of the Suez and the Amsterdam
canal engineers brought into requisi-
ton. are we'll known to their American
brethren, and their use would msteri-
ally lessen cost Let but a moiety of
the energy which is now expending
itself in the search after new and
cheaper means of transportation by
land be devoted to the opening of a
ship canal across Florida, and the sue
cess of one of the greatest projects of
the age is assured.