cly 
reach the sea, they pour their waters into Chotts as on the 
High Plateaux, but at most times the surface water has given 
out long before the Chott is reached. 
The Sahara of Tunisia and Algeria—we know very little of 
the Sahara south of Morocco—may roughly be divided into 
an eastern Sandy Desert south of Biskra, and a western 
Stony Desert south of Laghouat. 
When coming from the High Plateaux at over 3000 ft. 
above the sea, and going via Biskra into the sandy desert 
to nearly 100 ft. below the sea, and seeing the more or less 
dried-up Chotts surrounded by an enormous waste of sand, 
nothing is more natural than the conclusion that one is on 
ground which once was the bottom of a sea. This was indeed 
the opinion for long entertained about the nature and origin 
of the Sahara, and this opinion led to the belief, after the 
successful cutting of the canal of Suez, that the Sahara could 
be flooded by cutting through the coast barriers in Tunisia 
and Morocco. Speculation was rife as to the effect the sea 
thus re-created would have on the climate of Europe, and 
opinion was much divided for and against the undertaking. 
The project was based on ignorance. The Chotts may have 
been larger and more numerous in the Sahara in former 
times than at present, but the Sahara has never been part 
of the bed of the ocean and cannot possibly be flooded, the 
proposal being only feasible as regards the low-lying Chott 
district between Biskra and Tougourt. Channels cut through 
the coast barrier of Tunisia from the gulf of Gabes and 
through the ground which separates the Chotts and is above 
sea-level, would result in the creation of a comparatively 
small inland sea, the influence of which on the climate of the 
Sahara as a whole would be negligible. The northern Algerian 
and Tunisian desert no doubt would benefit by such an inland 
sea, though, even this benefit would be rendered illusory, 
because a large number of the low-lying oases would have 
to be sacrificed. The project appears to be outside practical 
economics. 
The low-lying Sahara south of Biskra is essentially a sandy 
desert or clay, but there is in places also firmer ground which 
bears a richer vegetation at times than the sand-dunes, 
