Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-10-09

| course thirty-five billion tons seems a
great deal of water. But compare It's
volume. In that little curve of tn,
Atlantic Ocean which forms the
eeastline of the New England States
and New Brunswick and part of Nova
Scotia, there is an area just about
equal to the product of 500 by 500, or
100000 square miles-the same area al
lowed above for the Sahara Sea. There
is a daily tidal rise in this locality
varying from about ten feet along
Cape Cod to sixty feet in some parts
Of the Bay of Fundy Allowing a
mean distribution of twenty feet rise.
the number of tons of water thrown
upon these shores twice every day is
fully one-tenth as many as would be
required to form Sahara Sea. No
one ever fears that this tidal displace-
ment of water will .'unbalanoe" the
earth, or in The language of science,
disturb the obliquity OF the ecHptie,
Thirty five thousand billion tons, in
proportion to the bulk of the earth is
utterly infinitesimal. In proportion to
the volume of the ocean il Is as
drop out of pailful. And it is
burden of displaced weight over a re-
gion nearly at the equator. A little
further reasoning. or experimenting
with globes or balls, will show that,
since the earth is not exactly spherical
but is somewhat thickened at the
equator and hattened at the poles. To
disturb her present axis OF zSia de-
grees inclination it would be necessary
to apply additional weigh: at either
one of tine two poles. Additional
weight spread out at the equator
could not affect the balance OF the
axis.
We are also warned that the climate
of Europe would be endangered That
is a more interesting, because more
plausible. objection. At present there
is very little rain over the desert ie-
gion of North Africa. Scientists agree
that this dryness is due not to the
arrangement of neighboring mountain
ranges, but to various physical causes
i'm the region itself Perhaps the pres
ence o. so extended a body of water
might produce rains. Certainly II
would equalize the temperature SO
that there would be less intense heat
by day and less intense chill by night;
but comparison with other regions
bordering upon seas in the equatorial
zone shows that il could not reduce
the temperature of tropical climate
to that of any merely temperate re-
gion not influenced-as Bermuda is, for
example-by warm winds or currents.
That eliminates one of the assumed
dangers The warm climate of the
British Isles is due to warm ocean
currents which sweep their shores; IL
is mostly unlikely that drawing from
the Atlantic Ocean the water required
to form a Sahara Sea would defiect,
to any serious degree, If at all. any
of these great currents. That ehnd-
mates another danger The third ana
last danger that has universal import
consists in whether or not sucii sea
would too greatly cool the winds that
blow from Africa across the Medltef-
ranean TO southern Europe. But 1t is
safe to predict that While colonlsls
living upon the shores of the sahara
Sea would doubtless delight in any
cool zephyrs that might blow from its
surface around their homes. there
would be no appreciable change inthe
..Afric breezes" that blow across the
Mediterranean Why the Sahara sea
would be merely a big shallow pond,
an unusually large irrigation reservoir.
COMPARED with The natural seas and
great lakes of the world.
1t should be remembered that II
France reclaims the desert. she will
do so for her own benefit. For several
years Algeria has been to France
what Florida is to New England dur
ing the winter months-her mainstay
for ell kinds of early vegetables. Fhe
green produce, leaving Algiers at noon,
is unloaded at Marseilles in the after
noon of the next day, starts on the
evening trains for Lyons and Paris,
and within thirty-five to forty hours
afterSleaving Africa is ON sale in the
Paris markets. 1t was this proximity
that first attracted her attention to
Africa At the same time she is not
likely to permit the carrying out of
any scheme which could injure the
climate of southern France and de-
stroy the revenue of her noble vine
yards-Boston Transcript.