The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1899-11-23
What Engineers Propose Doing
with the Worlds Deserts.
The Sahara Could he Quickly Made
an Inland Sea-PrOjcct to Divide
Ireland with q
Canal.

|
and frill and furbelow, differs from her
savage sister running wild in pestilen-
tial woods. AS art has transformed the
one, so has il the other.
Only the Mime. Rachel" who has
made the earth, il not exactly "beauti-
full for ever" at least a pleasant and
healthful place wherein to dwell, is no
charlatan with n dray load of CO.'S
metics and glib tongue, but a civil en-
gineer, owning nothing more harmful
than few MISUNDERSTANDING instru-
ments and measuring tape.
And the marvel of it all is this--that
what has been done is but an infnites-
mal fraction of that which may, and
doubtless will, be done. Who can doubt,
for instance, that the great Sahara
desert - that mole upon the worlds
face-will one day be but a memory? {?
/ 1t was an inland sea once. 1t would not
| be very difficult matter to convert it
/ into one again.
| a canal 60 miles long. connecting
with the Atlantic the vast depression
which runs close up to the coast nearly
midway between the twentieth and
thirtieth parallels of latitude, would do
the business beautifully. The water
would not, of course, cover the entire
surface of the desert. Here and there
are portions lying above sea level.
| These would become the islands Of the
new Sahara ocean.
What would be the results that would
ensue upon this stupendous transfor-
nation? Some would be good and some
bad Among the latter may be men
toned the probable destruction of the
vineyards of southern Europe, which
depend for their existence upon the
warm dry winds from the great African
desert.
In similar manner the greater por-
tion of the central Australian desert,
covering an area Of fully 100000
square miles, might be flooded. The is
land continent would then be recon-
verted into gigantic atoll, and would
resemble, roughly, an oval dish of
which the depressed central portion
would be covered with water and only
the rim" inhabited. In this connec-
tion it may be interesting to note that
company has actually been formed
for submerging the Yuma desert in
southern California. II the plan, as at
present proposed. is carried out, tract
Of absolutely uninhabitable territory,
comprising nearly $4,000 square miles,
and the greater portion Of which lies
between 500 and 1000 feet below sea
level. will be submerged.
A few Englishmen-known as "little
Englanders"-still blame the govern
ment for insisting upon the reconquest
of the Soudan. "A useless acquisition"
say they. Perhaps!
But capable judges believe that it
would have been little less than suicidal
to have allowed these regions to fall
into the hands of France; for the sim
pie reason that her engineers, by divert
ing the course of the Nile at Abu Hamed
or Berber-no very difficult task
could at any time burn all upper Egypt
into desert.
1t has even been suggested that il
might be possible-by turning its wa
ters into one of the many lateral
ravines which run at right angles to
the present course of the river-to find
new outlet for it into the Red sea, and
thereby to transform, in process OF
time, that sheet of water into a great
fresh water lake.
To accomplish this, it would Of course
be necessary to build giant dam
across its southern meek" near Perrin,
and to regulate, or rather stop alto
gether, the inward flow of the Mediter-
ranean through the Suez canal-a big
task, but one not entirely impossible OF
accomplishment.
The above are examples of big
schemes. There are many others that
might be mentioned, including, of
course, the Panama and Nicaraguan
canals, and the French war canal be-
tween the mouths of the Loire and the
Rhone, which, when completed, will
enable their ironclads TO dodge round
behind Gibraltar when passing from
the Atlantic to the Mediterranean or
vice versa.
But it is the comparatively little en-
gineering feats which have slowly but
surely altered in the past and will alter
in the future the face of the earth. Even
so small matter, for instance, rs the
proposed seawall at Southend will cer-
tainly deepen the estuary OF the
Thames, and may conceivably do away
with the Goodwin sands. .r-.
A scheme was recently mooted to cut
ship canal through the center of Ire
land, beginning at Dublin and finish
ing at Galway. 1t would be no very
difficult feat to accomplish, for most
Of the country through which it would
pass is fiat and boggy-Chicago Chron-
icle.