530 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



themselves in the position that it is intended by Nature they should 

 occupy. 



" . . . . Seeing either sex alone 



Is half itself, and in true marriage lies 



Nor equal, nor unequal ; each fulfills 



Defect in each, and always thought in thought. 



Purpose in purpose, -will in will, they grow, 



The single pure and perfect animal, 



The two-celled heart heating with one fall stroke 



Life." 



Sanitary Record. 



AETESIAN WELLS AND THE GEEAT SAHAKA. 



By Lieutenant SEATON SCHEOEDEE, U. S. N. 



OF late years public attention has been somewhat drawn to the 

 great North African Desert. Mainly instrumental in directing 

 thither even the eyes and ears of idle curiosity have been the two 

 plans for flooding portions of that region. Of these plans, the French 

 and the English, the former has assumed the more definite shape, 

 though both are the subject of scientific and practical inquiry. 



It may be questioned if there is not another means of improvement, 

 more gradual, perhaps, but more sure and in many ways superior to the 

 creation of an inland sea — superior in point of economy, and more 

 widely diffused as well as more lasting benefits. Although our knowl- 

 edge of the geological and historical part of the Sahara, and of its 

 constitution, hydrography, and climate, is scarcely extended enough to 

 prophesy confidently as to its future, yet it may be advanced that, if 

 the desert is extending and the population decreasing, it is greatly due 

 to the bigotry, hostility, and laziness of the Saharan tribes. The one 

 requisite is water, whence the projects of supplying that need from the 

 ocean. Perhaps it may be obtained otherwise, in comparatively ho- 

 moeopathic doses it is true, but fresh, and in such manner as to bring 

 about grander results. 



That water is not wanting in the Sahara is proved by the wells 

 dotted along the routes of caravans. These are very shallow, and the 

 water they afford is generally brackish and muddy, showing that they 

 only reached parasitic sources and not the main subterranean sheets ; 

 but they are only the hui-ried work of passing caravans, whose sole 

 thought was to supply the needs of the moment and reach the oases 

 where very old wells have been found having a depth of over two 

 hundred and fifty feet. It is a curious fact, too, well attested, that the 

 number of wells has been greatly reduced by the Saharans filling up 

 many of them as a means of defense against dreaded invasion. 



These wells date back to the time of the first relations between the 



