The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-04-28

far frcm Tunisha and in time we may cross the Sahara by rail.
 Surveying the Sahara.
 The French are rapidly prospecting the desert. They have already laid out the route for a telegraph line from Algiers to Timbuktu and Lake Chad It will be 25.J miles long. Their civil engineers have also gone over the desert from here to TimbuStu and they report that the chief difficulty in running a railroad be- tween the two points will be the ques- ton of fuel. The coal which is now used nthis line is briquettes made of coal dust each being the size of an ordinary building brick, and the expense of trans portation Is such that at Colomb- -Bechar good coal costs about $20 l ton. This cost will be increased as the railroad goes farther south. At this writing the engineers have discovered no coal along the route, and l am told that they will not continue the road unless some cheap CT fuel can be invented. If Thomas Edi- son should discover as he has been try ing to do for many years, way of get ting the full energy of the coal without turning 1t Into steam that may solve the problem As 1t is now fully 90 per cent of the heat energy is lost, so that such an invention would make coal ten times as cheap as 1t is now. This would make Trans-Saharan railroad a possi- bility.
 Look at the Caravans.
 The caravans which bring goods here from the oases are as clumsy means of transportation as can be imagined. Each freight camel on long journey carries about 300 pounds and the usual rate of travel is not more than two miles an hour. Every dozen camels has to have a driver, and each caravan is equipped with water bottles of pig skins and pro- visions for the people on the journey. The ordinary caravan has only hun- drc1 or so camels and some from thirty to sixty, while the larger ones will have as many as 800 and several hundred men to guard them. In the past caravans of a thousand or more camels were not un- common and there are some such cara vans now on their way from the Soudan to Tripoli.
 Many of these caravans stop for the camels to feed on the thorn bushes as they go over the desert. Others carry provisions for a part of the way! The routes are always along the lines of the oases, as a camel can only go from three to five days without water. On long journey the beasts are kept from drink ing for some time before starting in or- der that they may be thirsty and fill the great reservoirs inside them.
 Freight CameIs Versus Racing Camels.
 find that there is a great difference in canels down here in the Sahara. There are some that go as easy as a gaited Kentucky horse, and others which jar one more than a hard trotter. The me- harls, or fast. riding camels, make twelve nniles an hour right along; they seem to be all legs and have the speed of the winds. They are we'll cared for and are as beautiful camels can be. There are usually some of these meharis with the larger caravans. They are rid- den by soldiers or the chiefs of the tribes. armed with guns. Sometimes Tuares-, so mounted, are employed as guards
 The freight canels. on the other hand, are scared and dingy. They always loo,; sullen and will bite at you as they pass. They groan, grumble and even shed tears every morning when the loads are put on, and they seem angry from daylight to dark. It takes two or three months for a caravan to cross the Saha- ra. whereas, by railroad, one could make the journey in three or four days. The caravan trade, I understand. is steadily falling off, and at present the chief long distance transportation is between the Soudan and Morocco and Tripoli.