Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-07-22
OCEANS MADE TO ORDER
The Great Sahara Desert May Some Day
Be an Inland Sea Again.
Engineering Feats That Would Alter
the Surface Aspect OF the Globe
No Great Obstacles.

From the London Mail.
Few people realize how completely of
late years the surface aspect of this weaz-
ened 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 So
ciety lady, in all the glory of fold and frin
and furbelow, differs from her savage sis
ter running wild in pestflential woods. AS
art has transformed the one, so has it the
other.
Only the Mime. Rachael who has made
the earth, If not exactly beautiful for
ever, at least pleasant and healthful
place wherein to dwell, is no charlatan
with dray load of cosmetics and a glib
tongue. but a civil engineer owning moth
ing more harmless than a few mysterious
looking instruments and a measuring tape.
And the marvel of it all is this-that what
has been done is but an infinitesimal frac-
ton 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
memory? 1t was an inland sea once. 1t
would not be very difficult matter to con-
vert it into again.
A canal sixty miles long, connecting with
the Atlantic the vast depression which runs
close up to the coast nearly midway be-
tween the twentieth and thirtieth parallels
of latitude, would do the business beauti-
fully. The water would not of course,
cover the entire surface of the desert.
Here and there are portions lying above
the sea level These would become the
islands of the new Sahara ocean.
What would be the results that would en-
sue 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 great
African desert.
c |,
the mercantile marines of the nations af-
fected would be enabled to gain immediate
and easy access to vast regions now given
over to barbarism, and a series of more or
less 1ourfshing seaport towns would spring
up all along the southern borders of Moroc-
CO and Algeria. where the western water
shed of the Nile sinks into the desert, and
on the northern frontier of the Congo Free
State.
In a similar manner the greater portion
OF the central Australian desert, covering
an area or fuIly a million square miles,
might be flooded. The island continent
would then be reconverted into a gigantic
atoll, and would resemble, roughly, an oval
dish, of which the depressed central nor
ton would be covered with water and only
the rim inhabited. In this connection it
may be interesting to note that a company
has actually been formed for submergtng
the Yuma desert in southern California
If the plan as at present proposed is car
ried out a tract of absolutely uninha bitable
territory comprising nearly 1900 square
OI
lies between 500 and 1000 feet below sea
level, will be submerged.
A few observation-disclosures as Little
Englanders"-still blame the government
Tor insisting upon the reconquest of the
sudan. "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 have fallen into
the hands of France, for the simple reason
that her engineers, by diverting the course
n ha Of
very difficult task-could at any time turn
all upper Egypt into desert
III mas even been suggested that it might
be possible-by turning its waters into one
OF the many lateral raVines which run at
right angles to the present course of the
rlVer-to find n new outlet for it into the
Red sea, and to thereby transform in
process of time, that sheet of water into a
great freSh-water lake.
To accomplish this it would of course.
pc necessary to build giant dam across
us southern neck near Perrin, and to
regulate, or rather stop altogether, the in
ward flow of the Mediterranean through
the Suez canal-a big task, but one not en-
tireiy impossible of accomplishment.
The above are examples of big schemes
Ihere are many others that might be men,
tlonea, including, of course, the Panama
ana anu Nicaraguan canals, and the French
Loire and the Rhone, which, when com
pleted. will enable their ironclads to dodge
round behind Gibraltar when passing from
INV <h'iehtiC " Tic 1AeQlterranedN, vice
versa. - "
But 1t Is the comparatively little engi-
neer1ng feats which have slowly but surely
altered IN the past and win alter in the flu
ture the face of the earth. Even so small
a matter, for instance as the proposed sea-
wall at Southend will certainly deepen the
estuary OF the Thames. and may conceiy-
ably do away with the Goodwin sands.
"A scheme was recently mooted to cut a
snip canal through the center of Ireland
beginning at Dublin and finishing at Gal
way. 1T would be no very difficult feat to
accomplish. for most of the country
through which 1t would pass is nat and
Doggy. ' N'iu
But just consider the result Ireland
would no longer be one island, but two
ana many of the best of Moore's melodies
would have to be rewritten To aIIude to
misnomer. Even this, however would be
better than to have our own ''sflyer
Inames transformed into a huge ditch
with ocean greyhounds" and "tramn''
cargo steamers belching smoke through
Cliveden woods or over Cookham village
Yet such an eventuality is by no means
impossible, for 1t has already been bruited
to construct a ship canal from Bristol to
1 London by way Of the Severn and the