Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 April 1887 — The Sahara Desert. [ARTICLE]

The Sahara Desert.

The Sahara, the largest desert in the ■world, occupies an area estimated at from 1,500,000 to 2,5U0,000 square miles. The sterility of the Sahara is largely attributable to the fact that the prevailing northeast trade winds which blow o e its snrfaee.bring it no moisture, having been almost drained of aqueous vapor in their long continental journey over Europe and Asia. On the mountains south of the Mediterranean they deposit more than they have collected in their brief passage over the sea. When they reach the heated desert beyond, where the absorptive capacity of the air is greatly increased by the access of temperature, they bear away moisture instead of bringing it, and it is not condensed into rain until it reaches the mountains of Central Asia. The Sahara is probably subject to a higher temperature than any other region on the globe; the thermometer has b en known to register 133 deg. F. This terrific heat imparts their dreaded characteristic to the simoons and other similar winds blown off the desert. According to Sir Charles Lyell the Sahara was under water between latitude 20 degrees and 40 degrees N. at one time during the glacial epoch, so that there was water communication between the southern part of the Mediterranean and that portion of the Atlantic ocean now bounded by the west coast of Africa. A project lias of late been advocated of reconverting the deeper part of the Sahara, an area of about 123,000 square miles, into a sea, bv cutting a canal from the Atlantic through the sr.nd hills which form the western border.