Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1907-05-18
Across The Sahara By Railroad ~''4H5

crned ana most backward. II has 10
on more million population. and 1t 10
said TO be far richer than either Algeria
or Tunisia Excepting the French re-
pions OF the Desert OF Sahara, Morocco
Is almost as large as those two coun-
tries put together and 1t has no roads
nor any highways of communication
except bride paths II has some large
cities, such as FEE, Marakech and Mex
lreg aud eight or more coastal ports.
Tho country is such that railroads
could be easily built through IT, and
am told that the natural resources
Mould eventually make the roads pay.
one Of tho first lines to be constructed
In Morocco viii be from Tangier, the
part opposite Gibraltar, TO Fec the cap
ital. The distance is 175 miles and at
present all the freight between the two
cities Is carried on camels. donkeys and
mules. Travellers usually go upon
horses. aud they must always be ac-
companed by soldiers or pay tribute
70 the tribes along the way.
Another scheme Is 10 extend the West
ern Algerian road, which now goes 10
Tlemcen. on to Fee, This would con-
meet the chief capital of the sultan with
the French colonial railway system and
give Morocco access to almost 5000
miles of railroad communication.
stin another road proposed is that
from Mogador to Marakech and Fcz
This would furnish Fee with a short
route TO the Atlantic ocean. This was
the line favored by 81 Meh6i ell Meneb-
bi the eN-war minister of the sultan.
Both the French and the Germans are
now after railway concessions In Mo-
rocco,
RAILROADS ACROSS THE SAHARA.
More interesting than any of these
,f..H ,1t,, tt,
connect the rich regions of the Atlas
mountains with the Soudan. that great
fertile, healthy belt of North Central
Africa. The Soudan runs clear across
the continent from the Nile to the At
lantic. and 1t Is wonderfully rich IN re-
sources aud people. The barrier be-
tween the two regions is the great Des-
ert Of Sahara, which is as long as the
Mediterranean and as wide as from
the Atlantic ocean TO the Rockies. 1t
is i'm this desert that ] am now writing.
! have ridden for many miles over it's
rocky wastes of stone and sand, and
have climbed the mountains and pla-
teaus which are found here and there
In many parts of it.
The Sahara itself is neither level nor
low. It has vast plains where the sand
stretches out on every side to the hor-
lion, but there are many places where
the country is rolling. There are
gorges along the beds of cry rivers,
there are mighty bluffs of stone and no
end OF hills and mountains. / am in
sight of the chief range of the Atlas
at Biskra, and its hills are dryer than
the Sahara itself. / rode for several
hundred miles along the range which
separates Algeria and Morocco. The
sands OF the desert 60 to the foothills
and pile up there In great masses,
while the slopes above are absolutely
bare of vegetation and altogether arid.
The average level OF the Sahara
throughout is as high as that of the
Blue Ridge mountains In Virginia.
There are but few places where it
drops 10 500 feet above the sea. and
only one or two in which it falls
below sea level Lake Chad itself Is
several hundred feet above the ocean.
In the lower part of the central Sa-
hara, on the upper edge of which /
am now writing. there is a plateau ex-
tending from northwest to southeast.
which Is on the average more than
1000 feet high, and upon IL there is IA
mountain range which rises IN places
TO almost 10000 feet. The mountains
are so high that they are crowned
with snow in the winter
In the western Sahara the coun-
try IS almost equally rough, and there
is much rolling land in the Desert of
Libya, at the east.
A POOR PLACE FOR A RAILWAY.
In addition to Its rolling character
the desert offers many obstacles to
railroad building. One is the long
stretches over which the track must
go without water and another Is the
enormous cost OF hauling fuel AT
Colomb Bechar, the terminus of the
road which the French are building
southwark toward Timbuktu, coal is
now worth $50 n ton; and. unless mines
can BIO found along the line of the
route, a cheaper fuel must be obtained
or the extension abandoned The sta
lions at present are chiefly at the
GASES; but even there the pipes which
supply the water tanks are wrapped
with straw to retard evaporation and
every means is used 10 increase the
water supply.
The Sahara itself can furnish but lit.
tie support for railroad. II Is nep-
pered with Gases. but the fertile spots
are far apart, and 1t Is only I'm such
regions as the Fe2zan. Twat and Taf-
let, where there are a large number of
GASES together, that there will be many
passengers or much freight. The Saba
IA has, all told, about 10000 square
miles of GASES, but these are scat cred