Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 September 1876 — Submerging Sahara. [ARTICLE]

Submerging Sahara.

MKifjxHVUUs JWOD uie oi jirtJr f<2 “submwgii'uie Djend by constnictiojc genual Mearetiden) that the remit surveys conaud of up<* the passage for «H 0 iiutnonnr w if“i w nij, ui uie sci; ■usitefn describing »hc country at the date usww anu aounasnuy supplied with atomming water. The wood was cute 1 own ns facilitate the subjection of the tribes, who for above a century fought desperate tv foe their independence, and whole ■sgioaa are now condemned to sterUlity fsaw, portane, an oasis hern and there! which were formerly rich in pastures, and Interspersed with towns. The desert has keen gradually extended in the district between Tripoli and Egypt, covering parts wane fertile, and has In like manner encroached on the Tunisian southern frontier tuhraen it and Tripoli. The diminished heights and lowering of the Atlas let in tite sands driven by the southerly winds, Sa which the mine elevated and uniform heights of the mountain system oppose a hastier in mote favored Barbary states wntward. It is presumed that the disappearance of the waters is due to the encraachir.cnt of the desert caused by the actios of these winds during a long suc•aessiou of centuries, aided by absorption and by evaporation occasioned by the -presence of the vast scorching desert on MM south, sad also by the substances brought down fay streams diminishing the tiepUu and spreading the waters; and thereby helping in the work of deasicatioa. This was accelerated also by a decrease in the water supply in consequence wf the disappearance of modisval forests, cleared away by the Arabs on and after tiheir conquest. Hence the periodical rates, which once fertilized the country, ten been replaced -by heavier but rarer tells, which rush down the slopes anddis appear in the sands, or mix with the noxious waters of the lagoons before they can faflfcrate die soil to any depth, washing away the earth and exposing naked rock on hillsides or high grounds. Tunis being .* lake country, and recent discoveries having brought to light vast sheets of Water in Africa, the Vice Consul suggests that the idea of an inland sea having existed need not seem startling to us. Hie ■depression and also the lakes are known as “ shakbi” (marshes), and the inference Ss that at the date of the Arab conquest there were indications of recent retirement -of water. The low-lying wastes of sand, where crystallization of salt abounds •mingled with the minutest particles of •hell, are in some placesmarshy, in others dry, and often conceal treacherous quickmands. The largest and most westerly, iterated “Melrir," occupies about 400 square miles; the most easterly is described as within fifteen miles of Gabes. The Vice Consul states that in the southern province of Tunis the streams which drain the mountain slopes twenty or thirty miles from the coast are more or less useless from being impregnated with salt team the plains which they traverse.