The Portland daily press., 1883-03-29
DaLessens and the Desert.

LIE ASSS6pS dll4 OAC AOSVAV
NJ. De Lesseps is at Gabes, intent on max
ing his way by water into the desert OF Sa-
hara and converting that sandy waste into
an inland sea-a new Mediterranean. He
is impressed with the belief, which many
others have shared, that in prehistoric
times the indentation of the north African
coast which forms the gulf of Gabes-or
Cabes, as 1t is sometimes called-extended
southwark until it covered an immense area
which is now desert Of sand, leaving the
mountains of the Moon and strip of fertile
territory-included at present within the
limits of Morocco, Alglers, Tunis and Tri-
poll-between it and the Mediterranean, and
having for islands the numerous GASES which
now dot the desert. 1t is by excavating the
sand hills and letting the waters of the gulf
through again that De Lesseps hopes to re-
construct the ancient distribution of land
and water in the northern part of Africa.
If /, 100000 square miles of scorching desert
can be converted into placid sea, it is OBJ
ylous that great climatic changes viii be
produeed that the deadly simeon win be no
more; that "the immense furnace, heating
Arabia, Asiatic Turkey and Europe as
Malte-Brun calls it, will become extin-
guished; that Egypt will cease to be rain
less; that the long caravans with camels
will cease TO travel the skeleton-marked way
to Timbuctoo, and that European commerce
viii reach the heart of Africa through cities
that as yet have no site and harbors that are
a thousand feet deep with sand,
The government, while NJ. de Freycinet
was at the head of the cabinet, gave encour-
agement to the scheme so far as the filling
of certain depressions lying along the south
ern border of Tunis was concerned, with the
idea that not only might the climate be i'm
proved where the French possessions be,
but that the body of water would be pro-
lection from hostile incursions of the wild
Arabs of the south. 1t is understood that
the exploration which De Lesseps now has
in hand is favored, and probably paid for,
by the national authorities at Paris. Indeed,
such partial surveys as have already been
made indicate TO other competent engineers
the probability that the line of dry lagoons.
called ehotts, lying Immediately south OF
the French possessions in Tunis and of the
Algerian province of Constantine, are the
only natural depressions that exist of suf-
fcient dimensions to be worth considering.
One of these-the chott MelsRir-was found
by observations made about 80 years ago to
be more than go feet below the level of the
Mediterranean, and il was rather hastily as
sumed that there was vast natural basin in
the Sahara that could at any time be filled
with water and made navigable for large
ships by the simple process of cutting a can
al through the rise of land that lay between
it and the coast to the north. The idea
was, in a general way to reproduce sea
that had become extinct merely because its
connection with the ocean was choked up,
leaving its water 10 be dried away in the
sun. The chotts were supposed to be iden-
titled with certain Lake Triton, mentioned
by some ancient geographers as existing in
their time, but which, they said, had only re-
Gently been cut off from the Mediterranean
by bar formed of alluvial deposits. It was
thought by some that this bar could be rec
cgnized as the coast line near the city of
Gabes, though most of the old authorities
placed it 500 miles further to the east. A
French investigation seemed to upset this
theory by showing that the coast ridge at
Gabes was geologieally much older than an
alluvial formation woHld be; that it was of
great breadth and 100 feet in height.
Worse than this it was found that the great
er part of what had been supposed to be the
bed of Lake Triton was 40 or 50 feet above
the sea level
There IS no Certainty from any surveys al
ready made that there is any spot low
enough to receive water from the Mediter-
ranean except the chott Mel-Rir, and this
has an area of only about 5000 square miles,
or say seven times the size of Lake Geneva.
To fill even this would require a canal at
least $50 miles long, acress country having
height above sea level of from IS feet at
the lowest to 135 in ridges. The canal
would have to be six or seven hundred feet
broad and over 30 feet deep to carry water
enough to overcome the evaporation, which
II. Duponchel, distinguished student of
geography and climatology, says, in the
Rerue des Deatr Mondes, would take place
at the rate of more than 100000 cubic yards
per second. The labor of making such a
canal would be ten times as much as was
expended'on the Suez canal, and it is not
apparent that there wonId be any result
sufficient to justify such an outlay. 1t
would seem that land-locked basin incess
antly reflled with sea-water must in time,
by continual evaporation, become filled with
solid salt. Even while IL remained open, NJ
Duponchel is of opinion that it would have
hardly perseptible effect upon the climate
of the neighborhood, for the vapor would be
taken up by the winds and carried to distant
regions. On the whole, there seems to be a
prospect that the grand enterprise upon
which De Lesseps is now bent will in the
end prove to be more unsubstantial and i'm
practicable than his rather unpromislng
attempt to cut through the isthmus Of Pan