Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 March 1893 — The Trans-Saharan Railroad. [ARTICLE]

The Trans-Saharan Railroad.

While still in the air, it is quite certain that something will come of the recent agitation in France and Algeria in favor of a Trans-Saharan railroad as a strategic, political and commercial necessity. We know that the French have made Algeria one of the best mapped parts of the world; that they have built 1,700 miles of railroad in the colony, and that Algeria is looking across the desert to the rich central and western Soudan as a source of trade, capable of enormous expansion, which may be drawn to her marts. The outline of the plan is to build a narrow gauge road from Southern Algeria through a series of oase3 to Timbuktu, and to connect this point by rail with Senegambia on the southwest and on the east with the fertile regions of the central Soudan, as far as Lake Tchad. Three projects for this railroad have been studied by order of the French Governments. The Russians have proved in Central Asia that desert railroad building is practicable; and while the Saharan railroad project has not yet passed the stage of inquiry and discussion, there are indications that the work of carrying it into effect will not be long delayed. It will be required, however, to establish proper influence over desert tribes like the Tuaregs, who seem at last on the verge of more hopeful and pleasant relations with the white race. The proposed line from Ain Sefra is in greatest favor, and is likely to prove most practicable.—[Engineering Magazine. Ope' single mahogany tree in Honduras yielded mercantile lumber worth 110,0*1.