The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-07-22

vince OF Algeria-I'he Desert OF Shna-
ia Not Half So Rad rs 1t Has Been
Painted.
Especial Correspondence of the Journal
and Courier)
Thanks to French and English enter
prise, in the way of railroads, high
ways and well-kept mountain passes,
the traveller who has a few weeks to
spare may see pretty much all of the
big province of Algeria-which, by the
way, Is something over six hundred
miles long by approximately half as
broad. Diligences go where the rail-
way has not yet penetrated; in every
town of consequence, carriages or wag-
onettes may be hired for short trips, or
mules for mountain climbing; and
where hotels are absent, native cara
vanserai afford a taste of that variety
which is truly the spice of life. Tour
lists may even journey in comparative
comfort through the French Sahara
on camel-back, if they insist on doing
the thing In the old way, though that is
no longer necessary. Popular belief
still continues to picture the Sahara as
an immense plain of moving sand with
fertile GASES dotted here and there, as
expressed by the favorite smile of the
panther's skin-a poetical idea, whose
' only fault is lack of truthfuness. The
Algerian Sahara consists of two dis
tinct regions, known as the Upper and
Lower Sahara--the former a vast de-
preston of sand and clay, extending on
the east as far as the frontier Of Tunis;
the latter a rocky plateau, rising in
some places nearly three thousand feet.
stretching on the west to the borders of
Morocco The very worst of it all Is as
q garden of roses compared to the Ari-
iona desert and some other portions of
our great west. AS to the moving sand,
which the Arabs liken to a net, though
( bad enough, it happily does not extend
over a large area. Besides the cases
proper, including Benz M'zab, Oulas,
Sidi Cheikh, Souf, Ksours-there are
groves and farms and gardens all
along the edges of Sahara, in ravines
that cross the desert, and even in the
shifting sands where irrigation is i'm
possible. From time immemorial arte-
sian wells have existed in the desert,
torrents rushing down through steep
and narrow gorges, irrigate the GASES.
where curious dams retain and absorb
the water. The streams that percolate
through these dams, especially after
the heavy rains of winter and the melt
ing of mountain SHOWS in early sum-
mer, are again absorbed by the Sakias,
or irrigating canals. Wherever tin
lest thread of the precious liquid can
be found, wheat corn and alfalfa are
cultivated to the utmost The Lower
Sahara, bounded on the north by the
mountain range of Aures and the foot
hills of Bou- Kahil occupies depres-
sion, sunk below the level of the sea in
gypseous soil, a part of which forms a
sIeet>-af water salter than the great
= of Utah which, as everybody
knows, is salter than the sea. In sum-
mer this Sahara lake is of no great
depth, owing to evaporation. 1t is
covered with a thick and glistening
coat of crystals, so dazzling in the sun
that one can hardly distinguish where
the salt ends and the water begins It's
bottom is an abyss of black mud.
emitting an unpleasant odor-which is
DTOOdDlY uue W lllS pIcSClIC VI pic
mides; and crisis crossed all over it are
veins of solid ground, forming natural
causeways which the natives traverse
in safety with their mules or camels.
Considerable rivers cross the DESERT
notably the Dijedi, Chott, Aures, Gghe-
CHAR; but generally they are permanent
streams only in the upper part of their
courses Lower down their waters dry
up under the fervid African sun, or are
drunk by the thirsty sand, or are abb
sorbed by barrages, or filter through
the upper surface and flow along the
3clayey bottom which underlies it. In
many places small, deep depressions
are found. full of water, which seem to
indicate a subterranean lake. In other
parts water circulates close to the sur
face of the soil, enclosed IN sandy
ssubstratum under a bed of sulphate or
lime. crystallized on it's upper surface
and amorphous on the other. One has
only to penetrate this layer of gypsum
" create a well. When the Arabs
want to plant a date grove they scrape
az the entire upper crust and set their
palms In the auriferous sand beneath,
thus forming orchards excavated like
ants nests, COIlSluel AMY pVioN '''N NV
Of the surrounding country
The western Sahara that adjoins Mo-
rocco is mostly made up of rocky
steppes. the depressions between them
being filled with sand, the higher pla-
teaux furrowed with immense ravines,
without water or vegetation. more
desolate region can hardly be imagined
but it is not in the least like the saba
"a Of the school books. Rain seldom
falls in the lower part, and in the high
lands it is only during severe storms,
81 when unusually abundant snow has
melted in the mountains that the wa
tiers do any good. Uniting in the deep
defiles. a thousand streamlets form
mighty wave which for day or two
oyerhows the lower Sahara Then the
sands have absorbed it and nothing re-
mains but a few shallow pools, where
gazelles drink, and a slight rise in the
FREQUENT wells which supply caravans
with water. These periodical inunda-
tons, though relied upon, are not half
enough to supply the Benz Mzab, who
cultivate gardens in the beds of the
great ravines which dominate their
seven cities. In vain they treasure up
every precious drop in reservoirs; they
owe also obliged to cut deep wells in the
rock and collect the infiltration OF wa