Newport daily independent., 1905-08-23
OCEANS TO ORDER.
What Engineers Propose Doing
 with the Worlds Deserts.
The sahara Could Be Qutcxty Made an inland Sea-ProIss.t 70 Divide Ireland With
 Canal

.'"W people reHNZp now "OmnlHttty Ot ate years the surface aspect of this Wcazened old globe of ours has been d. erred and improved
 Enc world to-day, in fact. differs from the world pf our ancestors, nl,.ch Is s0cictY lady. in all the glory pt fold md frill and furbeIow, differs from her savage sister running wild in pestiteu~ uaL woods. As art has transformed The one, 90 has it the other
 Only the Mime. Rachel" who hHs made the earth, If pot 'xartiy beautt- tul for rrcr," at least ! pleasant and heatthfuI place wherein 70 iweIl. Is no .harlatau with tray load Df 'os- nletics and ! glib fougue but l 'Iuli 'n gineer. owning nothing more harmfu, than few mysterious looking instru- ments and 4 measuring tape And the marvel of tt all is this-that what has been done is but m inhnites- 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-wiIl one day be but memory? It was an inland sea once. It would not be very difficult matter to convert it into one again. ..--.e A4. { 2.aGlals lM
 A canal 60 miles long, connecting with the Atlantic tho vast depression which runs close up to the coast nearly midway between the twentieth and thirtietb parallels of latitude, would do the business beautifully Tho water would not, of course, cover tho entire surface of the desert Here and there are portions lying above sec level. These would become the islands of tbe new Sahara ocean.
 What would be the results that would nation? Some would be good and sou,o bad. Among the latter may be men toned the probable destruction of tho vineyards of southern Europe, which depend for their existence upon the warm dry E4inds 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 a gigantic atoIl 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- lion it may be interesting to note that company has actually been formed for submerging the Yuma desert in southern California. If the plan, az at present proposed, is carried out. a tr1ct of absolutely uninhabitable territory comprising nearly 13,000 square miles, and the greater portion of which lies between 500 and LOGO feet below sea level. will be submerged.
 A few English men-known as little TngIanders" blame the govern menr for insisting upon the reconqGcst of the Soudan. "A useless acquisition" say they. rcrhapsI
 But capable judges believe that it would have been little less than suicidal to have allowed these regions to fas into the hands of France: for the sim
  ing the course of the Nile at Abu Hamed or Berber-no very difficult task could at any time turn ali upper Egypt In to a dcsert.
 It has even been suggested that tt 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 6nd 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, tt would of course be necessary to build giant dam across it's southern neck" near Perrin, and 10 regulate, or rather stop alto gether, t4e inward h9w of the Mediter- Tanean through the Suez canaI--a big task, but one not entirely impossible Of accomplishment. .-.s.,.i..,' : ss ;~',
 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 nhonc, which, when completed, will enable their ironcIads to dodge round behind Gibraltar when passing from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean or vice versa.
 But it is the compara lively 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, as the proposed seawall at Southcnd will cer- tainly deepen the estuary of the Thames. aud may conceivably do away with the Goodwin sands.
 A scheme was recently mooted to cut q ship canal through the center of Ire land. beginning at Dublin and finish ;ng at Galway. II would be no very difficult feat to accomplish, for most of the country through which it would pass is flat and boggy Chicago Chron- i,.le.