76 



SAHARA 



SAIL 



They also entertain the grandly ambitions idea 

 of uniting their possessions on the Senegal and 

 on the Niger with Algeria and Tunis. This union 

 baa, indeed, been theoretically accomplished 

 already by the agreement of 1890 between 

 Great Britain and France, by which the whole 

 of the Sahara, except the went coast (which 

 U claimed by Morocco and Spain and Great 

 Britain ) ami the extreme east ( beyond a line drawn 

 from Murzuk in Fezzan to Lake Toad), was 

 acknowledged ' to be within the French sphere of 

 influence.' The proposed trans-Saharan railway 

 would make this union more practical, especially 

 if the railway line were taken from Algeria to 

 near Tim hue too, a distance of 1750 miles, as one 

 scheme proposes. Alternative routes are to con- 

 nect the Algerian system with Knka on Lake Tsad 

 ( 2250 miles ), to build a line from near Cape Nun 

 on tin- Atlantic to Timbuctoo (1100 miles), anil 

 to connect the Senegambian coast by a line over 

 Futa-Jallon with the upper Niger. 



Within recent years scientific men have eagerly 

 discussed the possibility of reclaiming the Sahara 

 from the arid desolation to which such a vast pro- 

 portion of its surface is now abandoned. That no 

 amelioration can be effected in the great bulk of 

 it - area is pretty well agreed ; and if the desicca- 

 tion is principally due, as has been maintained, to 

 continental changes of elevation, it is pretty cer- 

 tain that nothing can be done. But the destruc- 

 tion of forests on the northern mountain-slopes is 

 believed to be a co-operating cause. If so for the 

 fact is doubtful this could be remedied. Two other 

 schemes have, however, been proposed, and one of 

 them has been carried out with admirable success. 

 Westward from the Gulf of Cabes stretches for 

 250 miles a chain of salt lakes (skotts) right along 

 the south of Tunis and Algeria, to the meridian of 

 Biskra. Into these Captain Koudaire proposed 

 (1874) to let the waters of the Gulf of Cabes by 

 cutting through a ridge, 13 miles wide and 150 feet 

 high, and so making an inland sea of some 3100 

 BO. m. in area with an average depth of close upon 

 80 feet. The scheme is, in point of engineering, 

 practicable ; but it is questionable whether it 

 would accomplish the desired effect of modifying 

 the climate and soil of the surrounding regions 

 any more than the Sea of Aral or the Caspian does. 

 At all events the proposal has been allowed to drop. 

 In 1877 Mr Donald Mackenzie propounded the idea 

 of flooding the western Sahara, the district called 

 El Juf, by letting in the waters of the Atlantic ; 

 but the German traveller Lenz ascertained that El 

 Juf was not a vast depression, but only a small 

 valley. The other measure is the boring of Artesian 

 Wells (q.v.), and with the water so obtained irrigat- 

 ing the soil in the vicinity. This method of reclaim- 

 ing the desert, which was apparently known to the 

 ancients, has been prosecuted by the French with 

 great energy since 1856. Bv 1890 they had made 

 a string of these wells from the cultivated districts 

 of Algeria as far ax Tngurt, on the edge of the 

 desert, south of Biskra. Water is generally found 

 at depths varying from 10 to 300 feet, and in great 

 abundance. Wherever these wells have lieen bored 

 the date-palm groves and the orchards have in- 

 creased greatly in extent, and the population has 

 become much denser. 



In 1890 Cardinal I-avigerie, Archbishop of 

 Carthage (Tunis), founded at Biskra a lay order 

 called the Armed Brothers of the Sahara'; their 

 duties are to convert the native inhabitants, to 

 protect and assist escaped slaves, and to tend the 

 uck and wounded. 



There ii no tingle work treating of the Sahara u a 

 whole. The bet nourcci are the report* of French ex- 

 ploren, to be found in the Procecdinpi of the Parii 

 OtoyrafMcal Society, and Zittel, Die Sahara, thre 



phj/titchf and geologitehe Bttthaffenheit (KaMwL 1884)- 

 Naehttgkl, Sahara und Sudan (3 volt. 1879-K'J ) ; Barth, 

 Travel* in Worth- and Central Africa (5 voli. 1857-68)- 

 U-nz, Timbuktu (1884); Kohlls, Quer durch Afrika 

 (1S74), &a: Duveyrier, Let Touareyt du fiord (1864): 

 I Tchihatchci, The DtKrt* of Africa and Ana. (Brit Assoc! 

 Report*, 188-J): Holland, (jfolo,,ie du Sahara (1891); 

 French books of travel by Soleillet ( 1876 ), Choisy (1881L 

 Largeau (1882), and Uouls (1888). For the railway 

 schemes. Bee Comptet Jtrndui of Paris Geog. Soc. (1890): 

 and Donald Mackenzie, Flooding of the Sahara (1877). 



Saliaranplir, a town of British India, North- 

 west Provinces, is situated 125 miles by rail N. of 

 Delhi, and is the station for the hill sanatorium of 

 Miisini (Mussoorie). It has an old Kohilla fort, 

 a handsome new mosque, St Thomas' Church 

 (1858), numerous administrative offices, and 

 government botanical gardens (1817). It was 

 formerly notorious for its malaria, but has vastly 

 improved in this res[>ect since a marsh to the cast 

 of the town has l>een drained. Pop. ( 1872) 43,844; 

 (1881)59,194; (1891) 63,194. The tiutrirt has an 

 area of 2221 sq. in. and a jiop. of 979,544. 



Sahib (Arab., 'master,' 'lord'), the usual title 

 in India and Persia of a respectable European, 

 equivalent to Mr, Sir, &c. Hence SaJiibah is the 

 term for Lady, Madam. 



Sail la. See SIDON. 



Sa'ld Pasha. See EGYPT, Vol. IV. p. 242. 



Saiga. See ANTELOPES. 



Saigon, capital of French Cochin-China, stands 

 on the river Saigon, a branch of the delta of the 

 Mekhong, about 60 miles from the sea by river. 

 The present town has grown up under French 

 influences since 1861, and with its fine streets and 

 squares, and boulevards, is one of the handsomest 

 cities of the East. It has a magnificent governor's 

 palace, a cathedral (1877), two higher colleges, an 

 arsenal, a floating-dock and a dry-dock, admin- 

 istrative offices, and a botanical and zoological 

 garden. Its population, consisting principally of 

 Chinese, Annamese, and French, amounted to ( 1881 ) 

 13,481, and ( 1890) 16,213. But the business suburb 

 of Cholon, 4 miles to the south-west, had (1885) 

 27,589, and ( 1890 ) 39,925 inhabitant*, more than half 

 Chinese. Saigon (properly GmW< ) is the most 

 important port between Singapore and Hong-koii};. 

 It exports every year rice, chiefly to China, the 

 Philippines, Japan, and the Straits Settlements, 

 to the value of 1,440,000 to 1,720,000. The 

 remaining exports include fish, salt, cotton, wood, 

 beans, and hides. The port is entered by 400 to 

 WK) vcs.-els of 460,000 to 560,000 tons annually, 

 of which nearly one-fourth are British; then 

 come German and French. Previous to the French 

 occupation ( 1861 ) Saigon, although only a collec- 

 tion of common Siamese huts, was the capital 

 of the province of Lower Cochin-China. 



Sail, a sheet of canvas or other suitable material 

 which is spread to the wind to cause a lioat or ship 

 to move through the water. In Britain flax and 

 hemp are the materials of which sail-cloth is usually 

 made; jute, cotton, and linen, and mixtures of these 

 are also used by civilised peoples. Amongst savages 

 matting and tissues of various vegetable fibres are 

 used. Sail.- are extended by means of masts, yards, 

 booms (at lower edge of fore-and-aft sails), gaffs 

 (at upper edge), ropes, and combinations of these. 

 Sails may be of various shapes, and of any size, 

 according to the carrying power of the vessel. A 

 vesael of shallow draught or of narrow beam can 

 bear comparatively little sail ; while a vessel of 

 proportionately deep draught, and heavily ballasted 

 as a yacht or a vessel of great brea.li h of beam, 

 can carry sail of great area. A sail acts with the 

 greatest power when the wind in directly astern, 

 as in fig. 1 ; but it can be applied, though with 



