SAGUENAY RIVER 



5142 



SAHARA 



Sago is used extensively in Europe and North 

 America for making puddings and thickening 

 soups. The Europ< 



ing stock and in starch making. It is a nutri- 

 tious and an easily di.irt >nl>le food; over E 

 i-nty-eight per cent of ii r of 



-. and it has a fuel value of 1.G35 

 calories per pound (see CALORIE; FOOD, subhead 



"istry of Foods). Borneo is the lar- 

 producer of sago. 



SAGUENAY, a', RIVER, an impor- 



tant river of Quebec, tributary of the Saint 

 Lawrence. IT dark, gloomy stream, 



world-renowned for the grandeur of its scenery, 

 particularly in its lower parts. The Saguenay 



- from the eastern end of Lake Saint John, 

 and flows for 110 miles in a general easterly 

 direction into the Saint Lawrence, its mouth 

 being 120 miles northeast of Quebec (see map, 

 facing page 1096). For a distance of forty 

 miles below the lake it is a series of rapids and 

 cataracts, navigable only for canoes. There the 

 river flows between hilly banks, about 400 feet 

 high, covered with dense growths of spruce, 

 maple and birch. At Chicoutimi it becomes 

 navigable for small steamers and at Ha Ha 

 Bay, six miles farther, for larger vessels. Ha 

 Ha Bay is about nine miles long and the same 

 distance wide, and is a noted resort for tourists 

 and summer residents. 



From Ha Ha Bay to its mouth, a distance of 



miles, the Saguenay flows through a 



rocky, treeless gorge, which graduall}' rises to 



ight of 1,800 feet at the Saint Lawrence. 



The line of cliffs is broken here and there by 



narrow, green valleys, but for most of the way 



- dark shadows over the waters. The 



r Saguenay is really a iiord or loch, rather 

 than a river. It is from three-quarters of a 

 mile to two miles wide, and has a depth rang- 

 ing from 800 to 2,000 feet. At its mouth it is 

 600 feet deeper than the Saint Lawrence, into 

 which it flows. Tadoussac, at the confluence, is 

 a popular watering place and was the first 

 European trading post in Canada. 



ke Saint John, from which the Saguenay 



issues, is a shallow body of water covering an 



tare mil.-s. It receives numerous 



important rivers, one of which, the Peribonka, 



Morally accepted as the upper course of the 

 Saguenay. From Tadoussac to the head of 

 the Peribonka is -a distance of 405 miles. Lake 

 Saint John is famous for its ouinaniche, or 

 land-locked salmon, a fish which often attains a 

 weight of five or six pounds, and is an excellent 

 food fish. 



SAHARA, sahah'ra (in Arabic, sah'h'rah), 

 a vast desert in Northern Africa. It extends 

 roughly from the Atlantic Ocean on the west 

 to the valley of the Nile on the east, and from 

 the Sudan on the south to the Atlas Mountains 

 and the Mediterranean Sea on the north (eefe 

 colored map of Africa, opposite page 81). 

 Thus, it encroaches on Egypt, Tripoli, Tunis, 

 Algeria and Morocco. Its physical limits are 

 not everywhere as sharply drawn as they are 

 in those parts of Algeria and Morocco whriv 

 the traveler looks down from the ramparts oi 

 the Atlas range upon an undulating and limit- 

 less waste. Elsewhere the confines of the desert 

 are often less easy to trace, being merged with 

 the fertile surrounding territory, especially to 

 the south. The greatest length of the di 

 3,200 miles, along the twentieth parallel of 

 north latitude ; its breadth from north to south 

 varies from 800 to 1,400 miles. Its area is esti- 

 mated at three and a half million square miles 

 about that of Canada, or of Europe without 

 the Scandinavian peninsula, or nearly that of 

 the United States, including Alaska. 



Physical Features. The central plateau ex- 

 tends about three-fourths the distance across 

 the desert, in a northeasterly southwesterly di- 

 rection, and has an elevation ranging from 1,900 

 to 2,500 feet. Three mountain ranges, the 

 Ahaggar, the Tibesti and the Air, rise above 

 this plateau. The highest peaks have altitudes 

 varying from 6,000 to over 9,000 feet. During 

 the winter their summits are capped with snow. 

 In this mountain region are numerous river 

 valleys. The Western Sahara is a vast sand 

 waste, and to the north and east of the central 

 plateau is the Libyan Desert, a barren waste 

 without animal or vegetable life, excepting on 

 a few oases. The Libyan Desert extends to 

 the Nile. The region between the Nile and 

 the Red Sea is mountainous. The Sahara con- 

 tains extensive regions covered with sand dunes, 

 whose form is constantly changing under the 

 action of the wind. 



Oases. Oases occur in depressions, a number 

 of which are below sea level. They are watered 

 by springs that are fed by underground streams, 

 which in turn receive their supply from water 

 that sinks through the sand to an underlying 

 layer of clay. The best authorities believe 

 that by sinking wells the tillable area might be 

 greatly extended, for the soil is fertile, and 

 wherever water can be obtained tropical fruits, 

 millet and other cereals may be raised in 

 abundance. The oases are the centers of popu- 

 lation. 



