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Show j DESTINED TO BECOME DESERT i Great French Colonial Territory In North Africa Seems to Hold Out Little Promise. W'udai was the last point of colonial expansion of the French before the European Eu-ropean struggle drew their energies and attention homeward. The great African territory was added to the French Kongo only a short time before the war broke out. Very few. white people have actually visited Wudal, but tales of the region are numerous both In upper Egypt and In Tripoli. Occasionally some of the inhabitants in-habitants of the lit tic-known region can lie seen in the bazaars of Khartum or Algiers. Wiulai lies at the head of caravan routes that cross the desert both from the Mediterranean and the Nile. It hears a laid reputation, reputa-tion, even for North Africa. It is known ns'one of the hist strong- holds and sources of -apply of the I slave trade. Its people are divided i into conquerors and conquered (he former belonging to a powerful nn-I nn-I live tribe that holds the Mohammedan Mohammed-an failh and the latter Including all manner of very primitive savages. Up to very recent times these savage people peo-ple are known to have been captured anil sold as slaves along (he Barhary coast. The French only established a protectorate In 1012, so that they had little opportunity to break up the trade before the European war. In physical appearance Wadal is described de-scribed by the caravan men as a vast low-lying plain. Great finds of it have never been explored. It seems to have once formed the bed of a great Inland sea, of which Lake Chad, In the southwest, south-west, Is the shriveled remnant. In fact, the Sahara Is steadily encroaching encroach-ing on It from the northward. It Is crossed by the old channels of several rivers, but without a single flowing stream. At no very remote geologic epoch of the future Wadal will apparently appar-ently become a part of the great des- crt to the north. I |