DAKAR — WHITTLESEY 397 



Senegal, was designated as the seat of the new supergovernment, in 

 addition to administering both Senegal and Mauritania as subcolonies. 



Dakar continued to make inroads on the business of Saint-Louis, 

 and after a few years the government of the AOF was transferred to 

 the rising town. Pending the construction of necessary buildings, the 

 administration was housed at Goree and gave the island a brief after- 

 glow of authority. 



As at its inception 40 years earlier, the expansion of Dakar was 

 planned with health and commerce as ruling considerations. (Fig. 4.) 



The capacity of the harbor was greatly enlarged between 1898 and 

 1912. The jetty was prolonged to a total length of 530 meters. 

 Thenceforth it was called the South Jetty, to distinguish it from the 

 new North Jetty, a breakwater projected at right angles to the coast 

 near the base of Bel Air Point, though not until years later connected 

 with the land. It reached a point 2,080 meters from shore. Between 

 the two jetties an easily navigated opening was left, 250 meters wide. 

 The water thus enclosed covers 225 hectares. 



The sinuous water front was straightened with dredgings from the 

 harbor, making a broad, level space for railroad tracks and roads to 

 serve the port and for warehouses and other port buildings. The north 

 half of the new frontage was reserved for a naval arsenal, with a dry 

 dock to handle ships of 10,000 tons and a base for submarines and 

 destroyers. The south half was improved to accommodate the grow- 

 ing trade by two moles 300 meters long and a third as broad, oriented 

 in the direction of the prevalent winds and equipped with warehouses. 

 These, with the intervening quays alongshore, total 2,200 meters of 

 wharfside (pi. 2, lower left). Running water was made available for 

 ships, but coaling continued to be done by long lines of male and 

 female porters, because of the cheapness of their labor. 



The need for providing water for ships was only part of a more 

 insistent demand for sanitation of the whole city. In favored places 

 north of the town, dunes were systematically honeycombed with 

 channels, through which water collected in sumps. Thence it was 

 pumped to a reservoir in town and distributed at hydrants in the 

 streets. 



Other sanitary measures begun at this time were calculated to re- 

 duce the menace of mosquitoes. Ravines in the town were filled. 

 Marshes and backwaters for 20 kilometers out were drained by cutting 

 channels through the sand bars that separated them from the sea. 

 Brush was cut to eliminate breeding places, and plantings of eucalyptus 

 and filaos on low places were made over the whole headland, to lower 

 the water table. Harbor improvements and the installation of the 

 government of the AOF were sure to bring increased population. In 

 anticipation, the original plat of the city was quintupled by new 



