Newport daily independent., 1905-09-07
OCEANS TO ORDER.
What Engineers Propose Doing
 with the Worlds Deserts.
The Sahara Could He Quickly Made an In land Sea-PrOject to Divide Ireland with
 Canal

J
 weazened old globe of ours has been al-
 tered and improved. The world to-day, in fact, differs
 from the world of our ancestors, much
 as society lady. in all the glory of fold
 and frill and furbelow, differs from her savage sister running wild in pestilen-.
 tial woods. As art has transformed the
 one, so has it the other.
 Only the Mime. Rachel" who has made the earth, If not exactly ''beauti- full for ever," at least pleasant and
 healthful place wherein to dwell. is no
 charlatan with g dray load of cos-
 metics and glib tongue, but civil en- gineer, owning nothing more harmful
 than few mysterious-looking instru-
 ments and measuring tape.
 And the marvel of it all is this-that
 what has been done is but an infinites-
 imal 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 memory? It was an inland sea once. It would not
 
 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 Lo o,,l
 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 DOT ton 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 ntoll, 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- ton it may be interesting to note that
 a company has actually been formed
 for submerging the YHna desert in
 southern California. If the plan, as at
 present proposed, Is carried out. tract of absolutely uniahabitable territory.
 comprising nearly 13,00o 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 Enganders"--still blame the govern
 ment for insisting upon the reconquest of the Soudan. "A useless acquisition" say they. Perhapsl ,.l'ut. ,.5+@G But capable judges believe that it would have been little less than suicidal to have allowed these regions to fal! into the hands of France, for the siln- 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 turn all upper Egypt
 into desert. ~. It has even been suggested that t
 might be possible-by turning it's wa- ters into one of. the many lateral
 ravines which run at right angles to the present course of the river-to find
 a 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, 1t would of course
 be necessary to build a giant dam across it's southern "neck," near Perrin.
 and to regulate. or rather stop aito- 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 ironcIads to dodge round behind Gibraltar when passing from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean or vice versa. .to.l. ,4 .-, .., But it is the comparatively little en' gineering feats which have slowly but
 surely altered i'll the past and will alter
 in the future the face of the earth. Even
 SO small 8 matter, for instance. as the
 proposed seawall at Southeud will cer-
 tainly deepen the estuary ,of the
 Thames. and may concelvabiy do away
 with the Goodwin. sands. n.. ....4.t.
 A scheme was recently mooted to cut a ship canal through the center of Ire
 land. beginning at Dublin aud finish
 ing at Galway. It would be no very
 difficult feat ts accomplish. for most
 of the country through which it would pass is flat and boggy.-Chicago Chron-
 icle.
 Could "Lick' That Fellow Easity.
 One day Tommy accompanied his
 mother on shopping expedition. and.
 seeino a large candy man in confec-