RECLAIMING SAHARA.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 398, 21 September 1875, Page 3

RECLAIMING SAHARA.

{From the Paris Correspondent of the Times.). A railway betweeu Algeria and Senegal, via Tirabuctoo, appears a startling project, yet such was the scheme suggested in a lecture a.t the Salle des Conferences by M Paul Solelliet, who maintained that valuable merchandise from America, destined for Southern and. Eastern Europe, would adopt that route, and.thus restore to the Mediterranean, tne importance necessary to the influence of the Latin, races. M,.Soleillet started on ah expedition from Algiers in December,'lß72, his intehtibn'being to reath St Louis, Senegal, via Timbuctoo, but owiijig to the'opposition-of ah' ihsitrgeht chief, be was unable to- penetrate further thdu Calah (1000' kilometres from Algiers). The latter portion of the route had never before *

been trod by Europeans. He declares it a mistake to imagine the Sahara a long, continuous tract of sand. He found along a great part of the way a fertile soil, producing both an African and a European 11 ~.•>, including cereals, which are grow, n gardens, but have to contend with a d>y climate. At one point, however, he and his four companions had to dismount to make a irack for their animals, a'id at another the p"a n was covered by stones of different colors, one tint succeeding another. He believes the dunes are not formed by the action of the wind, but are rocks decomposed by atmospheric agencies. This is shown by their variety of height find form, and by the undoubted durability for at least several centuries of at least one of these dunes. He was struck in traversing these sandy regions with the sharp outline of distan} objects, and with of certain stars, which had the same tints to the naked eye as they 'present through a telescope. He speaks sanguinely of the intelligence of the Berbers, and their capability of being civilised. The Mussulman clergy he describes as possessing great power. They are the sole judges of questions of morality, and excommunication is the severest punishment known, while the most heinous offence is marriage with foreign women, a prejudice he attributes to a Jewish tribe converted to Mahomedanism, which ha thinks probably settled there before the Christian era. _ He found no dangerous animal in the Sahara, the ostrich and the gazelle being the largest of the fauna. His expedition was ill-timed, on account of an insurrection against the Emperor of Morocco having broken out, but he promises to make a second attempt to reach Senegal, and he suggests that French consuls or residents should be stationed along the route as foci of commerce and civilisation, for the inhabitants are sedentary and have adopted division of labour, and though slavery exists, this must be regarded as an initial step in advancement. It may be added that an Italian expedition, got up by private individuals, has arrived at Tunis for the purpose of ascertaining the feasibility of turning the waters of the Mediterranean into the Tunisian Sahara. a project advocated by M. de Lesseps before the French Academy of Sciences last autumn. The question at issue is whether the lakes or schouts were connected in classic times by a canal with the Gulf of Gabes, from which they are now separated by an isthmus 21 kilometres broad. The explorers will take the levels of these lakes, and ascertain whether a canal is practicable. It would be a great advantage to Algeria by opening up the province of Oonstantine to trade. The Bay of Tunis has showa great courtesy to the explorers, and placed an escort at their service. It may be remembered that an expedition assisted by the French Government is about to cross Africa obliquely from Congo to Nubia,