Arizona republican., 1899-08-14
OCEANS TO ORDER
what Engineers Propose to Do with
the Worlds Deserts.

! Few people realize how completely
of late years the surface aspect of this
weakened old globe of ours has been
altered and improved
The world of today in fact. differs
from the world of our ancestors much
as a society lady, in all the glory of
field and frill ara furha low. differs from
her savage sister running wild in pes
tilentaI woods. As art has transformed
the one, so it has the other
Only the Mime Rachael who has
made the earth if not exactly beau
tiful forever at least pleasant and
/ bealthful place 10 dwell. is no char
Iatan with dray load of cosmetics and
Il glib tongue, but a civil engineer,
owning nothing moro harmful than Il
few mysterious looking instruments
and measuring tape.
And the marvel of it all is this-that
what has been done is but an irfinites-
imal fraction of that which may. and
doubtless will be done. Who can doubt
for instance thar the great Sahara des-
ert-that mole upon the worlds face
will one day be but a memory9 1t was
an inland sea once. 1t would not be "a
very difficult matter to convert it into
one again.
A canal sixty miles long. connecting
with the Atlantic the vast depression
which runs close up to the coast nearly
midway between the twentieth and
tlirtieth parallels of latitude, would
do the BUSINESS beautifully. The water
would moi of course, cover the entire
surface of he desert. Here and there
are portions lying above sea Level.
These would become the islands of the
new Sahara Ocean.
What would he The results that
would ensue upon this stuPendous
Transformation? Some would be good
and some bad Among the latter may
be mentioned the probable destruction
of the vineyards of southern Europe
which depend for their existence upon
the warm dry winds from the African
desert
As some compensation for this how
ever. the mercantile marines of the
nations affected. would be enabled 10
gain immediate and easy access to vast
regions now given over to barbarism.
and a series of towrS would spring up
al along the southern borders of
Morocco and Algeria. where the west
ern watershed of die Nile sinks into
the desert. and on the northern frontier
oftha Congo Free State.
In n similar manner the greater por-
ton of the central Australian desert,
covering IN area of fully a million
square miles. might he flooded. The
island continent would then be recon
verted into a gigantic atoll, and would
resemble, roughly, IN oval dish. of
which the depressed central portion
would be covered with water and only
the rim" inhabited.
In this connection it may be interest
itg to note that a company has actual
" been formed for Suhmerging the
Yuma desert in southern California. Ii
the plan. rs al present proposed. is
carried out, Il tract of absolutely I'm !
inhabitable territory. comprising near
" Is. eco square miles. and the greater |
portion of which lies between 500 and !
/ eco feet below sea level, will be sub
merged.
a few observation-disclosures as Little !
Englanders''-Stfu blame the govern |
ment for insisting upon The reconQuest
of the Soudan. ~ useless acquisition
say they. Perhaps,
But capable judges believe that it
would have been little less than sui
cidaI to have allowed these regions to
have fallen into the hands of France.
for the simple reason that her engi-
neers by diveriing the course of the
Nileat Abu Hamred Or Berber.no very
difficult taSk-cOuld AT any time turn
Ill Tpper Egypt into a desert.
1t has even been suggested that it
might be possible. by turing its wa
iers into ona of the many lateral IA
vines which run at right angles 10 the
present course of the river.-tO find
new outlet for it into the Red Sea. and
10 thereby transform, in process Of
imp. that sheet of water into great
fresh water lake.
To accomplish This. it would, of
curse. be necessary to bUild Il giant
lam across its southern neck near ]
PERRIN. and to regulate, or rather stop
lltogether. the inward flow of the
Mediterranean through the Suez can
ia big ask. but one not entirely i'm
possible of accomplishment.
The above are examples Of big
schemes. There are many others that
night he mentioned. including of .
curse. the P21ama and NicaragUan
annals. ana the French war cana" be-
ween the mouths of the Loire and the !
}hone. which, when completed, viii
,nable their iron clads to dodge round /
,ehird Gibraltar when passing from
he alag 70 the AIedltefIanc2l or
ice versa ondon Mall.