THE SCHEME FOR FLOODING THE GREAT DESERT.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 358, 5 August 1875, Page 3

THE SCHEME FOR FLOODING THE GREAT DESERT.

An interesting and ambitious project is, says a contemporary, at present on the tapis, having for its aim the conversion of a large portion of the very ixtensive deserts known as the Great Sahara, into an inland sea, by introducing the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. The observations of adventurous travellers have made known the fact that there is in the Sahara an immense depression, known by the Arabic name of El Juff. This depression is distinguished even in that Bterile region by its excessive aridity, making it an impassible barrier to caravans, which are compelled to skirt two of its sides, thus lengthening their journey more than 100 per cent. For instance, from Cape Nun to Timbuctoo, the distance is 740 miles in a straight line, whereas by the route the caravans are compelled to take, the distance is more than 1700 miles. The consequence is that a caravan journey occupies four months, while the cost of carriage is £4O per ton. Scientific investigations show conclusively that El Juff is an old sea bed. and to this day it contains large deposits of salt. It contains, moreover, "huge chasms, grottoes, and caves, with marine debris scattered throughout, seeming as if the ocean had left but yesterday." Ancient maps by Diodorus, Plato, &c, place an immense lake on the site now occupied by El Juff, whose drying up is easily to be accounted for. It was connected with the Atlantic by a narrow neck, which gradually became rilled up by the sand deposited by the very strong current which sets in on the coast. When once, through this agency, the waters of the ocean were cut off, El Juff would rapidly evaporate, till at the present day it presents the appearance of an enormous beach, without a drop of water or the faintest sign of animal or vegetable life. An expedition is now being organised in London to survey the sandbank which separates El Juff from the ocean, with a view to ascertaining the cost of cutting and keeping open a navigable channel through it. The sandbank is roughly stated as being 30ft high and fi /e miles wide, the distance between the headlands which it unites being ten miles. El Juff is on an average 250 ft below the level of the Atlantic, and as it is bordered by higher lands it can easily be kept within harmless bounds. Its boundaries, however, are also to be surveyed by the expedition, which thus has plenty of hard work before it. It is alleged that if El Juff were made a navigable sea, profitable commercial relations could be established with 20 millions of people, at present almost entirely beyond the reach of European enterprise. The productions of the regions concerned at present consist of cotton, indigo, tobacco, coffee, indiarubber, and copper, and with the improvement in climatic conditions, caused by the flooding of the El Juff, the productiveness of the country would be much increased. It will thus be seen that the project is one of no small importance, and if it succeeds in the manner sanguinely anticipated by its promoters, the world will look upon the achievement as one of the greatest triumphs of British enterprise, going far to make up for the prestige gained by France in respect of the Suez Canal.