The record-union., 1897-08-15
THE GREAT SAHARA.
RESULT OF TWO FRENCH Ex-
PLORING EXPEDITIONS.
Popular Conception Of the Vast
Sea of Land Will be Wholly
Revolutionized.

lar conception of this vast sea of sand
will be wholly revolutioniZed, and more
than that, it is probable that the pro
ject of driving a railway across the
desert and developing its resources and
colonizing it will be revived. Follow
ing the discoveries Of Lieutenant
Hourst and Lieutenant Bluyet of a few
years ago of a large lake in the neigh
borhood Of the bend of the Niger, a
party of French Government engineers
has just completed a typographical sur
vey of the region with the result Cf
finding not one, but string OF more
than twenty lakes, all of them of con-
siderable size, in this supposed water
less plain. One of these, Lake Fagulr-
inc, is sixty-eight miles in length. At
the same time a party led by Nj. Bon
mel de Mezieres, an Algerian mission
ary, penetrated into the desert from the
north and by striking out of the beaten
paths Of the caravans made discoveries
of an equally surprising nature regard
ing the existence of numerous large
river beds, which are flooded in the
spring, and also the probable existence
of subterranean sheet of water under
lying a large portion of this vast gray
waste, which may be tapped by the
artesian drill.
Almost coincident with the publica-
ton of these reports a British traveller,
J. c. Robertson, related at the recent
meeting of the British association his
visit to the great market city of Kano
in the Central Soudan, which is fairly
within the limits of the desert. Here,
in a region popularly supposed to be
almost as devoid of inhabitants as of
vegetation and rain, is a city whose
daily market is attended, according TO
this Englishman, by 25,OOO people, who
trade in cloths and other products of
their own and their kindred. 1t is the
largest market in the world.
THE LAST TERRA INCOGNITA." !"
Although some years ago considerable
attention was drawn to the Sahara by
the proposition of a French engineer,
NJ. Roudire to flood" the desert, and
in this way reclaim a large area of rich
land, and a little later the project for
a -Saharian railway was exploit
ed with much vigor, the great African
desert remains to-day probably the
least known and most misunderstood
portion of the globe. And this is true
not only as regards the popular I'M
preston but even of such standard text
books as Huxley's photography. Even
to the well informed the Sahara is still
a colossal expense of shifting sand,
broken here and there by little oases
and occasionally crossed by caravans
of camels which are often swallowed
up and buried under the sand storms.
There are many, too, who have gained
the impression from M. Roudire's
scheme to dig a channel from the sea
into the desert that a large portion, at
least. of the Sahara is below the level
of the ocean, and that it would only
take short canal to introduce a large
lake into the very midst of this forbid
ding waste It is true that portion
of the Sahara is actually something
like 10C feet below sea level, but it
would cost $50, ,OOO 600 at a very low es
innate. to establish a lake not nearly
so large as our own great Salt Lake,
and in the estimation of scientific men
the climatic effect of this lake would
be no greater than the big salt sea of
our own desert. That is why nothing
ever came of the Frenchnan's daring
project.
But a. far larger portion of the Sahara
consists of vast plateus, whose altitude
ranges from 1000 to 5000 and 5000
feet. Although the southern edge Of the
Sahara. hes very near to the equator
yet snow falls in the higher attitudes
and remains for at least three months
in the year, giving rise to large rivers
whose courses may be traced for hun
Ioc in the
sands.
It is upon this latter fact that the
feasibility of arteSian wells and irrigat-
ing systems and the actual reclamation
of the desert is based. How much of
this wonderful region may thus be
made habitable it is yet impossible to
tell. The wells established by the
French thirty years ago, in the district
of Oued Rir, something like 200 miles
south of Biskra, have developed re-
gion of great fertility, and the groves
and gardens there to be found seem a
promise of what may be accomplished
over wide portions of the desert Far
to the south of the Oued Rir the date
palms. planted by the French officer.
F'Iatters and his Inflated expedition Of
1877, developed into a fine grove with
out any care whatever.
It is the belief of NJ de Mezieres that
a large number of such valleys exist in
the northern portion of the desert where
water is to be had in abundance, while
the find of the long chain of lakes by
the engineering party, northward of
Timbuctoo, indicated the availability for
settlement of a, large region very near
to the center Of the desert Farther
eastward, of course, in the region of
Kano and Lake Tchad, where the des-
ert tapers off into the rich districts OF
the Central Soudan, there is no doubt
whatever that the introduction of rail-
ways and modern systems of irrigation
viii bring q large population.
AT first glance it seems curious, es-
pecia1ly in view of the exploration over
the larger part of Southern Africa, that
these facts regarding the Sahara should
not have been known long ago But
the Sahara has not, like the regions
penetrated by Baker, Livingston and
Stanley, been a land of mystery. There
was common impression, even among
educated men, that all was known of
ft that was worth knowing. There has,
moreover, never been any hindrance to
any man of ordinary courag joining
one OF the numerous caravans that
cross it at all seasons of the year, and
enjoying the discomforts of a rough,
dreary and profftless journey. There
never seems enough to warrant a thor
ough investigation into the geology and
topography Of this back yard of the
earth. For the mast part the routes of
the caravans lie over the more sandy
portions, where cases are few