OCR Text |
Show THE GREAT DESERT. The area of Sahara nearly equal to that of europe. A Barrier to the Progress of ClTlllzatioa Which Engineering Skill Is Trying; to Overcome The Important Point In the Solution of the African Problem. We have but to loon upon the map to see how large a space upon the world's surface this mighty desert takes to itself. it-self. It covers more square miles than the whole of the Mediterranean. If it were transported across that sea, it would extinguish Europe, for it has been computed that if you leave out Scandinavia it would nearly cover the whole of it. If it were only sunk in the sea, the waves would roll over it, and it would be remembered no more forever. But it insists on keeping its head above water and above ground, crowding crowd-ing out fertile portions of the earth, while its barrenness rtnders it unfit for human habitation. There it lies on the face of Africa, a huge black spot, deserted de-serted by man, as it seems to be accursed by God. No man passes by it or willingly will-ingly puts his foot thereon. Even the lonely caravan that sicims it like a bird leaves no track behind it any mere than the bird in the air or the 6hip on the sea. It passes and is gone, leaving not a trace of life in man or beast or bird or any living thing. So far as we can see, the desert is an utterly worthless portion por-tion of the globe. With such an incubus covering full half of northern Africa there would seem to be little hope of making anything any-thing out of it, since the cause which renders its condition bo hopeless cannot be removed. You cannot abolish the desert any more than you can abolish the sea. There it island there it will remain forever. Yes, but you can get over the sea in Bhips or under is by telegraphs, tele-graphs, bo that it 13 no longer a bar to the intercourse of nrtins' Is iberean way of taming the desert or subduing it so that it shall no longer be a barrier to the progress of civilization? This is the most important question to be settled as bearing upon the future of Africa. Of course if it were left to the native inhabitants all things would continue aa they were from the beginning of creation. crea-tion. Nor has Europe at large any interest in-terest in it. But there is one European power that baa an interest in it. France has large possessions on this side of the Mediterranean. Algeria and Tunis together to-gether make a country as large as one of the kingdoms of Europe, which France has the ambition to enlarge still further, bo as to have a great African empire, aa England has her Indian empire. em-pire. As part of the materials for this Bhe has another great dependency in Senegambia, on the western coast, a country covering 400,000 square miles. If this could in any way be united to Algeria.if the two could be consolidated, the new "empire" would at once assume as-sume vast proportions. But the desert blocks the way. It splits tho proposed' empire like a wedge. It cannot be removed, re-moved, but is there not some way in which it can be converted into a keystone key-stone for the mighty arch that is to Bpan the continent from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic? That is the problem which has long exercised the minds of French statesmen, and which they in turn have referred to their engineers, who are among the best in the world, with what lesult maybe briefly indicated. indi-cated. First of all, they have shown that it is possible to convert portions of the desert into oases by the sinking of artesian ar-tesian wells. A hundred and forty miles south of Biskra is the oasis of Tuggnrt, which has long supported thousands of Arabs, with their flocks and herds, but which was nearly destroyed de-stroyed some years since by the wells becoming so choked up as to no longer furnish a supply of water. Vegetation withered until the wretched people, stripped of what was to them the very water of life and too ignorant to be able to renew the supply, were in despair and began to leave tie country. Then the French engineers took the matter in hand and instead of trying to clear out tho old wells commenced boring bor-ing the solid earth and in five weeks struck water to such a good purpose that a river rushed forth that yielded double the quantity furnished by the great well of Grenelle at Paris. To the Arabs it seemed a miracle, and they began be-gan to sinj; and dance in the wildest manner to express their joy. Tne miracle mir-acle is ono that can be wrought wherever wher-ever men are willing to take the labor or to bear the expense. Of course to accomplish ac-complish a large result in the way of pasturage or agriculture it would have to be repeated on a tremendous scale. But for the purpose of uniting the two vast territories of Algeria and Senegambia Senegam-bia the first necessity is that of direct communication, which can only be by a railroad across the desert of Sahara. Is this within the bounds of possibility? Nobody's opinion is of any value except that of an engineer, and that I have tried to obtain. In Algiers the American Amer-ican consul took me to see Mr. Brous-Bais, Brous-Bais, who has made a special 6tudy of the subject and taken long journeys into the desert to survey the field of battle. He did not conceal from himself the enormous difficulties of traveling 1,500 miles with the want of water, the want, of wood for railroad ties, the want of everything, fie looked in the face the possibilities of these saud storms, which might bury a railroad train, as they have buried a thousand caravans. All this he had taken into consideration, and yet, looking all obstacles and all dangers in the face, he did not hesitate to assure me that in his judgment a railroad rail-road across the desert of Sahara was quite within the resources of modern engineering. But were the dream already fulfilled, the desert crossed and the tide of travel in full course, the whole African problem prob-lem would not be solved. This would be one 6tep toward it. Cor. Evangelist. |