The Arizona sentinel. [volume] (Arizona City [Yuma], Yuma County, A.T. [Ariz.]) 1872-1911, 1879-06-07
FLOODING THE SAHARA,
The Great Scheme COnsidered..An
Interesting Statement.

The Algerian Sanara 1nLO an lnlanu sea
continues to attract considerable atten-
ton in France, and scarcely a week passes
without some allusion being made to it in
the Paris Academy. At a recent sitting
NJ. de Lesseps read letter from Capt
Budalre in which the latter gave some de-
tails of the results of his sounding of the
soil at various points, sands and marls
being the beds most commonly met with.
At one place, four metres below the sur.
lace, plenty of potable water was met
with, which will be great saving IN car
rying on the work.
At the same sitting NM. Ch. Martens
and Ed. Desor presented several consid-
eratlons against carrying out the plan.
their opposition to it being shared by sey.
eral other Frenchmen of science. They
have themselves examined part of the
ground which it is proposed to put under
water, 50 that theii opinions ought to have
some weight While giving every credit
to VI. Boudaire for the accuracy of the
survey which he is carrying out, they.
however, point out the difficulty of per-
feet accuracy, which in this case is all.im-
portant, in the classic country of mirage,
where the surface of The ground is con.
stantly altered and deformed by reflection
and refractioa Moreover, they point out
that to the south of the projected sea is
the Wed-Souf, where are ripened the
dates known as Tunis dates, the culture Of
which is u very special one. The least
error in surveying, il is shown, might lead
to the destruction Of this culture 10y allow
ing the waters Of the Mediterranean to
penetrate the soil where the date trees
are grown. and thus destroy them. The
authors DO not attempt to touch the argu-
ment that even III historical times part Of
the S-1ara Now being surveyed was really
q great lake; but they point out that
there are proofs that in prehistoric times /
There must have existed ai interior sea, /.
at an epoch when the Autographed con /
ditious of Europe were very different from .
what they are ROW. IN 1868, when tx
pIoring the regions between the oases ui /
Guemar and the south extremity of the
Schott Mebrir, they io1nd the gypsum |
Geds of the plateaux ended in regular
lines like sedimentary beds, and from the
soil they collected the debris of shells,
truly marine, such as Bucciaiuna Gi6eyT1s-
Inn, LAM, and Balanus meise,, L. Above
these shells, in the sand, they found Car
diam e1ule, better preserved than they had
ever seen it. Thus they found fossils |
characteristic oil salt water, and of those |
which are a mixture of salt and sweet. |
The retirement OF the waters from the |
Sahara the authors attribute to the eleva- |
ton of the land, which is even yet below
the level of the Mediterranean, and is to |
great extent network of salt lagoons.
~ HSo UOCu Sostd ludC IuC CIcdllOu OI al |
interior sea, of 1920 square kilometres,
would change the pluviometric condition
of the country, and even that of the whole
of Algeria. This NM Martens and Desor
regard as great illusion. Although
the laws OF the general atmospherical
movements are little known, vet it is
admitted that the Atlantic is the great
reser voir from which come the vapors
which are resolved into rain over the
European continent. They believe that
this is also the case for Africa. The Med
lterranean is really only gulf of the
Atlantic, and they do not believe that All
addition OF $1,000 kilometres will add
anything to its climatic influence. Long
calculations have been made as to the
quantity of water that would be evapora-
ted by the new sea; but the authors point
out that tie predomnating wind in the
region is north, and that if it were rem
dered either too cold or too moist it would 7
affect the date culture carried
on in the south. The surroundings of
interior seas like the Caspian and Aral,
are steppes noted for their aridity; the
shores of the Mediterranean suffer in the
same way when, Us last year, The rains OF
the north do not extend to the sotth. For
these reasons NM. Martens and Des0r n
think it would be mistake to insist on
the Creation of the interior Saharan sea. a.
In the subsequent sitting, however, should
be laid, NJ, Fave endeavored to show that
their fears were groundless, especially
with regard to the accuracy OF the
survey; he thinks that the work in con-
nection with the Suez Canal showed that &
perfect confidence may be placed in the