The Lake County star., 1877-05-31

| An article In late number of the
| Scientific American, Land Below
the Level of the ocean, treats Of the
scheme to convert the Desert Of Sahara
into an inland ses by cutting 3 canal
| to Il from the OCEAN. IQe article veo
large figures snd eaggsAn som4 lar'
if 1SS53 b caisIde;5i t6j iAIs
iaIH3 {6lnnd AXE, V Pnce estabti Rll !,
kUQ&k have 0oA IN water supply
: k0V4<nX but fHob b(a Ater wOuI6fv T..
ta1nI ruSlD< y Hhr0( the chan{Z1
Ito &i3ke lp ~ me large evapos9tb9
Which we may safely sst downat Il ~
pounds OF water per year for every
! {Qpare .6oNt> This would lower the
ievef twenty rect per year, which is
one-quarter Of the whole quantity of
the lake. This, for o surfhce Of Geo.
600 square miles, or 100, 600 ,000, 600, 900
square feet, gives 1000, ,0O0, ,000, ,000, 900
cubic feet OF water to be replaced an
nually from the ocean, or nearly 6,OOO,-
OOO, 600, 900 cubic feet per day, or 25O,
OO0, 0,OOO,O 900 cubic feet per hour, or A.
l80686, ,888, cubic feet per minute, or
69, 9,444, ,444 cubic feet or. 81, ,OOO, 600 gal
Ions per second. AS the German
Rhine carries only /, ,000, 600 gallons Of
waterlper second, on an, average, the
channel, bringing the. supply to the
Desert of, Sabsra from the ocean would
have to carry as much water as is
carried by 537l rivers like the Rhine ;
and from the salt water only pure
water ia ieyaporated, leaving the salt
behind, AS this amounts to 4 per
cent oh one-twenty-ffth OF the sea
water, and az nearly twenty feet deep,
or one-fourth of the 'watersin this new
lake, would annually ,evaporate, 1t
would only take 4x25, or 100 years, one
single century, for, all the watet to dis7
appear and a deposit Of sait take Its
place. Then the now randy desert
would be changed intoIe desert Of salt,
which sale would fll the whole basin
affiicti0n ID Algeria than the present
sand plain can possibly be.D
A canal to pass go. .434, ~ cubic feet
per second, must have Q cross-section
Of l3, 1856, 1888 square feet and as we
may assume tile depth limited to 80
feet, the width will be: 176, GIL feet, or
about; ;33 miles. The construction of
this canal would thus be- q work Of
some magnitude. n the length is
taken at 100 miles and the depth Of ex-
cavatiOn be estimated to average 240
feet, the total excavation would be
about "a, ,O00, 600, 900, 600 cubic yards; a
work involving n large bill Of expense !;
but as this channel would only supply
the evaporation. large additional
capacity must be given to insure the
filing up Of the reservoir. However,
suppose the work completed, the
evaporation adds 525 River Rhines to
the rivers Of the world, for, as the boys
say, what, goes up must come down.
What land would escape flood ? or II,
as might possibly happen, this inn
mense evaporation should fall in rain
on the mountains Of Africa, what
rivers the Nile and Congo would be-
come! They could then be traced to
their sources without difficulty. Per.
haps the evaporation would 90 saturate
the dry air Of Africa as to furnish ma
terial for rain ION the ground.n Pos
sibly the moistened air would lose
some of its capacity Of licking up the
water. J It is pertinent to infer from
this estimate Of evaporation what is
the evaporation from the whole ocean,
II one-thirty-eighth part equals 525
Rhines, the whole would be equal to
about 20, 900 such rivers. If this inland
sea fills up eighty feet with salt in one
hundred years, will not the rest of the
ocean be freshY