Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-05-16
Miseellaneuns 8eaaing.
TO MAKE SEA OF SAHARA.
Vast Project That Would Be Attend.
ed By Tremendous consciousness.

in Europe by the renewal Of the pro-
ject to change the Sahara desert into
| q sea.
| The author Of this project Is Pro-
fessor Edmund Etchegoyen. one Of
the most distinguished engineers and
ways comparable to Ferdinand de
Lesseps, the protector Of the Panama
canal.
The project is receiving great sup
port from Mademoiselle Etchegoyen,
the beautiful and accomplished
daughter Of the professor. She Is
championing the scheme with much
energy and enthusiasm, and through
her efforts there Is a serious pros
pect that it may be carried out.
In favor of the scheme 1t is said
that it will restore a vast territory to
civilization.
Against 1t Is urged the startling
fact that 1t may upset the balance Of
the world.
| The Sahara desert Is an immense
depression many hundred thousands
Of miles in extent, lying generally
| from one hundred to a thousand feet
below the sea level.
1t Is for the most part useless, a
menace to life and a hindrance to
commerce. It's climate Is absolutely
uncomfortable, because it lies on and
about the equator, below the sea level,
| and Is shut off from the cooling winds
from the north by the Atlas noun
tains.
On behalf of the plan to flood the
Sahara it is claimed: l. That 1t
| would render the territory surround
ing the great inland lake habitable.
.. That it would furnish a safe and
healthy way of communication
through Central Africa, and 3. That
1t would give a comparatively mod
crate climate to this region, as mod
crate, probably, as the north shore OF
Africa, lying on the Mediterranean
sea.
The lake could easily be formed, ac-
| W lHC ploJCSlOi o. W NuhhbAo
small fifty-mile canal from the Med
iterranean to the Sahara, through a
certain part Of the French African
| possessions. France Is the country
chiefly affected by the change, since
the Sahara lies almost entirely within
French territory.
The change might also be, effected
by letting the waters Of the Atlantic
in to the Sahara from the west coast
Of Africa.
Against the formation Of the new
sea the chief reason urged Is that 1t
would cause a dangerous change in the
climate Of Europe, the consequences
of which no one can foresee. 1t Is
quite remarkable how many eminent
scientists hold that this would be a
grave danger.
Some go so far as to assert that the
sudden shifting Of so vast body Of
earths axis, thereby entailing a dis
turbance which might cause the de-
struction of all life on our globe.
The change would mean the shift
ing of countless million tons of water
in the direction of the south pole.
| This, it is calculated, might have the
effect of shifting the south pole away
from the southern end of Africa to-
ward South America, and the north
pole in a corresponding manner away
| from North America toward Europe.
That, apparently, would have the ef-
! feet of changing arctic Canada into
moderate climate and Europe into an
arctic land.
There seems to be no question that
the creation Of a new sea In Africa
would seriously modify the climate of
Europe. Every continent is dependent
on conditions in the others. Scientists
that the extraordinary floods and frosts
from which Europe has lately suffered
are due to the deforestation Of Amer
lea. France and England have both
suffered abnormally from floods Pro-
fessor Camille Flammarion Of Paris,
is one of those who support this view,
and another Is Professor Bruckner Of
Vienna.
THE flooding of the Sahara would"
SAYS the distinguished Professor Mol
lendorff of Munich, make the climate
of France and Germany subarctic,
while England and Belgium and Den
mark would be almost uninhabitable.
Some of the greatest capitals in the
world would soon he quite deserted.
Polar bears would prowl amid the ice
bergs and SHOWS of what are now
splendid cities of London and Edin-
burgh and Brussels.
The British islands would be prac-
tically blotted from the map, since
their people would become a savage
people, clad in skins and drinking oil
and eating blubber like the Eskimo.
| The picture is a strange one, yet there
| is something else that is stranger still.
Serious minded men of science have
predicted something even worse. as a
possibility, than a mere change of eli
down through the hills and plains of
Morocco to the verge of the vast, mys-
terious desert which lies beyond
There would come the moment for
the last cutting to be made on the
edge of the Mediterranean-the mo-
| ment when a tremendous explosion
of dynamite would shatter the last
! barrier and allow the waters OF the
worlds oceans to go laundering and
roaring down the steep incline. The
bursting of a reservoir, the break
ing of a great dam is a fearful thing
to contemplate; yet how trivial would
it be compared with this great cata-
clysm, which would drain two million
cubic miles of water from the seas
and hurl them in one tremendous
avalanche into the heart of conti-
nent? Might not this sudden shifting
of so immense a mass actually destroy
II