ARTESIAN WELLS AND THE GREAT SAHARA. 533 



His project was then twofold : 1. To dig new wells in the Oued 

 Rhir, give new life to the oases then beginning to yield to the invad- 

 iiio- sterility, and so win the gratitude of their population : 2. To re- 

 vive the sandy steppes between that river and Biskra, open the desert 

 \o commerce as far as Ouargla or possibly Touat, so that French troops 

 or isolated travelers could enter that region without the fear of dying 

 of thirst. 



He experienced some delay, of course, but finally in 1856 the mate- 

 rial arrived at Tamerna, and on the 1st of May of that year the first 

 blow was struck by Ali-Bey, the Caid of Tuggurt. The work was 

 pushed rapidly forward, and on the 9th of June water issued in vol- 

 umes. Lieutenant Rose, of the French army, describes the scene as 

 being most affecting, comparing it to the miracle of Moses drawing 

 water from the rock by the touch of his rod ; the old skeik prostrates 

 himself, mothers bathe their children in it, and it is blessed and named 

 the Fountain of Peace. The issue of water was 69,725 gallons a day, 

 temperature of 70° Fahr. 



The news spread like wildfire, and the commandant of the prov- 

 ince of Constantine was besieged with petitions from other oases to do 

 as well by them. In eight years, 1856 to 1864, the French Govern- 

 ment established in that vicinity (between the Ziban oases and the 

 river Rhir) seventy-two artesian wells, of which twenty-four had been 

 previously abandoned in course of execution by the natives. They 

 cost altogether 290,000 francs (155,970), had an aggregate depth of 

 boring of 11,106 feet and a total first issue of 17,600 gallons per min- 

 ute. The deepest was at Chegga, 364 feet ; the least depth at which 

 water was found was twenty feet. The ordinary depth was between 

 160 and 225 feet, and the average temperature 76° Fahr. The largest 

 issue of any was 1,267 gallons a minute from that of Sidi Amran, 255 

 feet deep. In 1878 there were in Algeria 22,360 metres of wells, 

 yielding 22,000 litres of water a second ; their total cost was 2,350,000 

 francs. 



The ground of the Sahara is so impregnated with various salts that 

 the water of these wells, pure at first, becomes temporarily brackish. 

 Analyses made by MM. Ville, Vatonne, and De Marigny show that 

 each litre contained one to three grammes of sulphate of soda, one to 

 two grammes sulphate of lime, besides chloride of soda, various salts 

 of magnesium, and carbonate of lime. 



A peculiarity of the wells is that tiny little fish, resembling small 

 whitebait, are brought up in the water. They were first noticed by 

 General Zickel in the water spouting from the well of Ain-Tala, which 

 is 145 feet deep. The length of these little creatures does not exceed 

 one and a quarter inch. Their eyes are well shaped, although they 

 emerge froni regions so dark. They are malacopterygians, of the 

 species Cyx.>Tinodon cyanocaster. Similar specimens have been found 

 in some of the ancient wells of Egypt that were cleared by M. Ayme ; 



