Show SOURCES OF TUNISIAN PROSPER ITY tunis la to overwhelmed by the unexpected needs which its riches have created originally naify it was a small agricultural country do depending pending upon its vines olives cereals and cattle everything was done in the least expensive manner when a series of dia co verles veries transformed tunis from a strict agricultural to a mining country tr these discoveries commenced w with ih the famous phosphates of gabsa then the sudden rise in the value of zinc rendered the beds of calamine calam lne mare important in the neighborhood of the phosphate beds of gabsa the mines of ain which are no leaa less import important alt have been found farther north the mines of ed sen am and of daerda which are rather large have been discovered five large mines of iron are being worked at Ha mennas Dj erisse blata slata hebeur and attention Is now n ow directed toward the south where man canese has been found in large quantities between gabsa and gabes noth ing has been said of the desert country at the extreme south but the geologists are of the opinion that these mountains being of the same origin as those of the north contain the same pm proportion portion of minerals prospecting parties are being organized to investigate vesti gate this abla region the characteristic feature of all these mines Is their size it Is expected that millions of tons will be extracted from the mines already i ered consequently however far they may be from the sea the different groups which they form are ate sufficiently rich to justify the construction of a Tail As for the gafga mines a line has been constructed from mel laolyn to saax for the mines of aln ala cefra a tt line from to bousse Is being constructed for the mines of balzat ed acnam and 1 alaan ed darda a line has been constructed which goes from theae points to tunis and branches to the mines of Ha mennas and slate slata are to be built for the mines of gebour plans are bein being 9 made to build a line to and for the mines of another line IB Is being bd built lit which will be extended to habarka Ta barka this represents a IL railway system of nearly 1000 kilometers mile allee built for the mines which amure an exceptionally good traffic for the present there Is no question of a line to gabes but evidently the tunisian Govern government mint is thinking of it for plans are being made to spent franco france at this point in order to create reate a deepwater port the port will naturals natural 1 attract the railway the lines already built arc are insufficient for the immense traffic they have been called upon suddenly to handle traffic comparable to that of the largest french lines and for which they are not properly equipped the case of the line of kalaan OI ed Senam is characteristic from this point of view four years ago it was built in view of a maximum traffic of tons which it was believed it would never attain to no one foresaw the rapidity with which the use of it having in all european countries the market for phosphates would increase no one foresaw the extraordinary demands for fot iron which to take place the two libato mines of kalaan ed senam and kalaan and the two iron aiknes of slata and DJ erissa each wish tk be assured of the transportation of tons tong of mineral furthermore the last district has shown hown that in a good year the regions tw versed have tons of cereals for exportation consequently this railway has tons of freight to transport it is impossible to do it tt tho rails ralls are too light the side tracks too few workshops too small and the ma marial erfal Is insufficient the tunis RalA Ra lUvay stat loA quite too small is very frequently dangerously blocked the port of tunis Is no longer clone it must bo be greatly enlarged keport of consul general robert P skinner of marseilles |