416 A GREAT ARTESIAN WELL. 



400,000 francs. The water supplied is about 800,000 

 gallons a day : it will rise to a height of 1 2 2 ft. above 

 the ground, and its temperature is 81 Fahr. * The 

 borings for this well passed through 1378 feet of 

 chalk, the water being found in the green sand 

 beneath. The stories which are so rife in Algeria, (so 

 as to be almost an article of belief with many persons) 

 that small living fish are sometimes thrown up by 

 the fountains issuing from the bore-holes of these wells, 

 are, however, we are assured (on the authority of a 

 French officer, who was engaged in the construction of 

 such wells in the French African possessions), incorrect. 



This gentleman, who had ample experience of such 

 matters, informed us during our visit to the Sahara 

 Algerien, that he had never known an instance of 

 living organisms of any kind being thrown out by wells. 



A brief notice of the principal Flora and Fauna, 

 and the human inhabitants of the Desert Zone, must 

 bring this section to a close. 



First and greatest, among the vegetable productions 

 of this region, stands the Date Palm (Phoenix Dacty- 

 liferd) " The King of the Oasis ; " whose head (ac- 

 cording to the Arab proverb) is encircled by the 

 fire of heaven, while its feet are bathed in water. 

 According to the German botanist, Thome (a trans- 

 lation of whose text book is a standard work in our 

 schools), the date palm " is the only tree that has its 

 original, and uncontested home in the Sahara: the 

 rest, as well as a number of other plants, have migrated 

 from elsewhere, or been introduced by man. " f Though 



* Treatise on Wells and Well-digging and Boring, by J. W. Swindell 

 and G. R. Burnell, C.E., 3rd Edit., 1854, p. 82. 



-j- Text Book of Structural and Physiological Botany, by Otto W. 

 Thom6 and A. W. Bennett, 6th Edit, 1887, p. 443. 



