Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1908-07-10
NOVEL TUNNEL PROPOSED.
Germans Seeking Means to Fight Sand
Dunes IN Southwest Africa.

The Germans are in dilemma over
the railroad they are building in then
colony of Southwest Africa to connect
LuderitZ bay on the Atlantic with Beth
AMEN. more than a hundred miles inland.
They have not yet discovered how to
cireumvent the moving sand dunes thai
have covered the track many feet deep
only about fifteen miles from the coast
Moving dunes are common desert
phenomena. They are found in the Colo,
tado desert, in the Sahara and in the
Cobb wastes of Asia. Their action is like
the waves of the sea. The sand piles
mp into long high ridges, gradually top
pies over on the leeward side and thus
the whole sand, wave slowly moves along
and is soon replaced by those that are
following behind it.
The moving sand hills near Luderitz
bay extend over an area only about five
miles wide The problem before the
Germans is how to extend the track
across this narrow belt and keep it in
working order. These long ridges Of
sand are formed and moved by persist
ent southwest winds during half the
year and the railroad business will be
paralyzed unless some means is found
of overcoming them.
Several ways have been suggested for
meeting the difficulty. Months were
spent in building high walls of sandbags
ana stone SO Us. TO DFeak the line OF au-
vance of these sand hills in the hope
that way might be kept clear for the
roadbed. The hope was in vain.
The advancing hills. thirty to fifty
feet in height, are not retarded for q
moment by such puny Instructions
They simply move up to the opposing
wall, shower sand upon it from their
tops, bury ii out of sight and move
over the other side to pursue their way,
1t has also been proposed to excavate
the sand that has filled one of the mar.
row valleys extending across the belt
build an unbreakable roof over this de-
preston and thus maintain a permanent
| roadway. Objections have been raised
to- this plan and it has not yet been
| tested
Another scheme is to use the six
months when there is little or no wind to
fertilize the land crossed by the dunes
| with manure from the native cattle
! kraals and plant all sorts of desert
! shrubs and sow the seeds of desert
grasses in the hope to fix the sandy sur
| face so completely that dunes cannot
| regarded as highly problematical and Il
| will probably be left as last resort il
| all other measures fail
Another plan which is meeting with
! much favor among engineers is TO con
| struct across the belt large steel tun.
mel. Trains would enter the tunnel just
| before they reach the dune region and
emerge from it after passing all the OBJ
structions. The sand might pile ur
| above the tunnel as it pleased, but the
running of trains would not be affected
The problem the Germans are consid
| ering has not been met before in rail
road construction. 1t is very different
| from the problem that confronted the
builders of the transcaspian railroad
| who had to deal not with mountains OF
sand burying the surface from forty L
| fifty feet under them. but merely Will
track and covering it to depth of two
or three feet. Tie trouble was obviated
| by planting desert shrubs along the
roadway and the sand that leaks
! through the mass Of vegetation is dis
posed of by gangs of shovelers.-New
| York Sun.