THE PROPOSED INLAND SEA IN ALGERIA. 669 



strewed along the borders with small round and polished quartz peb- 

 bles. Near the banks is a meagre salsuginous vegetation. In the 

 interior its bed is clay, filled with crevices, but moist ; farther on the 

 crevices close and the saturated marl and clay form quagmires in 

 which horse and rider might be swallowed up. 



The eastern end of Shott Melrir, which is called Shott Es-Selam, 

 presents other general characteristics. Near the banks the bed is 

 sandy, but toward the middle it forms a hard crust of salt and sand. 

 Elsewhere the soil is a hard surface of clay, which shines in the sun. 

 Mirage is very frequent in this shott. 



Between the Shotts Es-Selam and El-Rharsa the expedition first 

 began to encounter obstacles which may seriously interfere with the 

 projected inland sea. In the intervening country are numerous smaller 

 shotts, of which that called Mouia-el-Tadjer is the largest. This shott 

 has a long extension stretching southward, called El-Hadjila, connected 

 with which on the east is Shott Mouia-el-Tofla. Measurements in the 

 highest part of the bed of the latter showed it to be more than eleven 

 feet above the level of the sea. A low ridge separates it from Shott 

 El-Asloudg, the western border of which is only between six and 

 seven feet below the sea, and the eastern about twelve feet. Between 

 this and Shott Bou Dhouil, which is little more than eight feet above 

 the sea, is an extended ridge of sand. Bou Dhouil is but a short dis- 

 tance from the Tunisian frontier and the great Shott El-Rharsa. At 

 this point the expedition ceased its labors and returned to Biskra, 

 convinced that a secondary canal connecting El-Rharsa and Melrir, 

 or some of the shotts belonging to its system, would be necessary 

 before the proposed inland sea could be extended far enough west to 

 benefit Algeria. This would entail a considerable additional expense, 

 but whether large enough to seriously afiect the realization of the 

 scheme cannot be known until the publication of the ofilcial reports. 



This expedition made no investigation of the Tunisian portion of 

 the depression, being evidently under the impression that no insur- 

 mountable obstacle existed in that part. Whether this belief was 

 founded on the accounts of the ancient geographers or on an actual 

 knowledge of the country is not apparent, but it is said that levels 

 were taken from Shott El-Jerid to the Mediterranean several years 

 ago by Captain Pricot de Sainte Marie, of the staif of the French army 

 in Algeria. His report, which is deposited in the archives of the Min- 

 istry of War in Paris, must have been favorable, else the survey of the 

 Algerian shotts would scarcely have been undertaken. 



It is reported, however, on the contrary, that a survey was made 

 of the same isthmus in 1874 by M. Fuchs, a French geologist em- 

 ployed by the government of Tunis to investigate the mineral resources 

 of the country, who discovered that physical obstacles exist of a nature 

 to render a canal impossible ; that a range of sandstone hills lies be- 

 tween El-Jerid and the sea, and that the bed of El-Jerid itself is con- 



