American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1879-08-02
Great Engineering Projects.

Great Engineering Projects.
Dispatches from Paris indicate that
the scheme for flooding the desert of Sa-
hara, in regard to which M. de Lesseps
has been conducting some investiga-
tions, has been abandoned, and that
French capitalists are turning their at
tention toward the construction of a
railroad from Algiers, on the north
coast of Africa, through the desert OF
Soudan, and from there to the mouth OF
the Senegal, on the west coast. Both
Algiers and Senegal are French ports,
and such a road would throw the Medi-
terranean and Atlantic trade from Cen
trail Africa largely into French hands.
The difficulty of the undertaking is ap-
parent, when it is stated that such a
road will be over 1000 miles in length,
and that the greater part of it will be
over the desert. But the French Cham
Der of Deputies have appointed COM
mission TO inquire into the feasibility of
the project, and have made M. de Les
seps member.
are showing great interest in the Pana-
ma Canal project, and some of them
are limiting at the possibility of a second
canal by way of the Nicaragua route, to
command the American trade.
While these great projects are being
discussed, and while General Fremont
is agitating the question of turning the
Gulf of California into its old basin for
the benefit of Arizona and Southern
California, Russia is actually engaged
in work that will change the trade
conditions and prospects of Central
Asia. The trade of the Caspian is in
the hands of Russia and Persia. Could
the trade of Central Asia be diverted to
the Caspian, Russia would control,
through the Volga, and the canals con-
Meeting that river with other rivers,
large part of the trade. With q view to
securing this control, Russia has pushed
her conquests southwark into Turkestan.
But south of the Aral lies the Kara Kun
desert, which stops the progress of her
and lies as a barrier cutting off
trade communications with Persia and
Further to the east, Rus
STA has penetrated to Bokhara and al |
most to the Afghan frontier along the
Oxus or ANU Darya. Last summer a
Russian steamer proceeded up the river
to point 600 miles above Khiva, or to |
within q short distance of Balkh.
1t is claimed that from B. c. 900 to
A. d. 500 the Oxus flowed across the
1esert above referred to, and emptied
INTO the Caspian. About A. D. 600,
what had been q depressed, reedy
marsh, received the waters of the Oxus,
urned aside by great dam built by the
zhivans, and became the Sea of Aral.
IN 1924 the river broke over the dam,
md the waters again flowed into the
Caspian. As late as 1880 the river was
described as flowing into the Caspian,
md as late as 1920 Dutch geographer
poke of the river as having two branch
s-one flowing into the Aral and the
'ther into the Caspian.
Peter the Great, informed by the Tur-
omans that the Oxus had been divert
d from its old channel, ordered the
obstruction of a fort on the Caspian at
the point where the. river
ad formerly entered the Caspian, and
made surveys along the old chan I
ell. The theory was then that if I
anal thirteen miles in length were I
ut across the dam the Oxus !
Iould flow down the old gully
, the Caspian. Surveying par
es discovered the-oId channel,
nd demonstrated that it was continu-
us. The force sent to open the canal !
as annihilated by the Khivans. A
undred years later another expedition
as turned back by snow and loss of '
amels. Within a few years other ex- I
editions have been more successful, +
nd large Russian army has been for I
sveral months operating against the t
while another expedition 8
as been engaged in the work of cut q
ng the canal across the ridge that d. +
srts the river from the Caspian, chan 8
Ell. +
If the plan is successfully carried out, r
le Oxus will leave the Aral channel u
Sous on AaiAoS AOitA "a AuiNCs duus | u
owing southwest across the Kara Kun, d
!. Turcoman desert, will enter the Cas- b
an at Krasnovodsk, the old fort es- il
blished by Peter the Great. This will .
lange the face of the desert country, q
i'll make it habitable for Russian ar q
les, and will make a new trade chan Il
d. G.
1t is believed by Russian engineers that v
g turning of the Oxus into the Caspi- \
! will bring its level up to that of the n
ack Sea, and throw its waters out into n
e desert and into the passes of the Z
aucasus. This would lead to the con- n
ruction of the proposed ship canal b
meeting the Caspian with the Black %
"a. l.
Thus it will be seen that this change g.
the Oxus is one of great commercial v
d political Importance. As it was q,
3 policy of the Khivans and Turco- r.
ans to give no information as to the 8,
channel, so it has been the policy of e.
lssia to keep secret the efforts to open l.
3 channel. There are great difficult
s in the way, as the Turcomans have
army of Is, 700 men to oppose the .,
Element of the country, but these will -,
overcome, and Russia may at last -
mmand her share of the Central Asian +.
de, through q channel that will be -,
culiarly her own.-Chicago Inter ~