Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-07-20
Copyright. 1907. by Frank @. Carpenter.)
Special Correspondence of The Star.

FIRlfOLl, 1870.
HAVE just returned from Mechia. the
great oasis which lies on the edge
of the Libyan desert, east of Tripoli
II 1t faces the Mediterranean and is
an island of green on the edge of
this might ocean of sand.
1t contains more than a million date
palms, fully as many olive trees. and vast
groves of oranges and lemons. The oasis
is cut up by roads, much like the streets
of a city Each little farm has walls six
or eight feet high. and everywhere are to
be seen the tall frameworks of the wells
by which the land is irrigated. The mo-
tive power for raising the water is cows.
camels, dOnkeys and women. In many
places tunnels or long inclined bitches. be-
ginning at the wells and sloping downward
for several hundred feet. have been dug.
and in these as tracks, the cow, donkey,
camel or woman trots up and down. drag
ging the rope. running over wheel on the
top of the framework, which raises the
water. At the end of the rope is huge
bag of skin open at both ends. This is
dropped into the well, and. when it fills.
the lower end is pulled up. thus form
ing a closed bottom, and the whole Is
dragged high up into the air. The bottom
is now released, and the water pours out
into a trough, which carries it off into a
reservoir. One of these buSkets will hold
about thirty gallons and as the work goes
on all day the supply raised Is enormous
An Oasis Farm.
During my stay l visited some of the
gardens. They are of all sizes. and are
beautifully kept. One, I remember. was cut
Up by cement conduits. running along on
the top of the ground. so arranged that
every little tract could be irrigated at WILL
Under the rich orange groves beds Of beau
tiful flowers were to be seen here and
there; and in most places three crops were
growing on the same soil Over the whole
rose date palms. with their ragged trunks,
their wide-branched fanlke leaves quiv-
ering i'll the breeze and their yellow
fruit shining like gold under the sun.
The trees below were loaded with Or
anges, pale yellow lemons, flaming pome-
GRANTEES and even with peaches and pears
On the ground itself vegetables were grow
ing and l saw even alfalfa and grain Of
different kinds. This garden was in the
charge of Bedouin and several of his
wives. The women were boiling dates in a
pot about the size of an apple butter ket-
tie, over a fire. out in the open. l don t
know whether they were making date but
ter or date honey, or whether they were
merely cooking dates, for sale in the mar
kets, The women were loaded with jeWelry
bribed one with a franc, and she let me
take her photograph. The others were more
bashful. and they wrapped themselves up
in their shawls whenever the camera was
pointed their way.
The Gases Of Barbary
The GASES of Tripolitana. or Barbary. as
1t is often called contain practically its
whole population. They are scattered over
territory one-ninth as large as the United
States and they have altogether about one
million people. A large number of them
such as Mecnia, are found along the shores
of the Mediterranean; others are further
south in the desert, in a great depression
known as the FezZah, and in addition there
are others in the beds of dry rivers, where
the water supply comes from springs or
artesian wells There are caravan routes
leading from Tripoli to all of these cases.
and also routes crossing the desert to the
Soudan from oasis to oasis.
Tripoli is, in fact, the commercial me-
tropolis of the eastern Sahara. 1t lies al
most directly north of Lake Chad, and its
routes across the desert are the shortest;
although by means the safest.
The roads yer the Sahara lead not only to
Lake Chad, but also to Tuat and Timbuktu.
so that Tripoi gets much Of the trade of
the French Sahara as we'll
The French decidedly object to this. and
they are now making special inducements
for the caravans to land their wares at