THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



SAHARA SEA.— Much of the 

 great desert of Sahara is below 

 the level of the Atlantic. It is 

 proposed that the water be let 

 in. The space covered would be big 

 enough to warrant us in speaking of it 

 as an ocean. There would be islands 

 in it, as there are places that are of 

 considerable elevation. 



So much water would make a differ- 

 ence in climate in all directions from 

 the present desert. It is thought the 

 vineyards of southern Europe would 

 be injured, as they are dependent on 

 the dry winds that come across the 

 Mediterranean from the great desert. 

 The rainfall in at least one-third of the 

 inhabited parts of the globe would be 

 affected by this great change in the 

 amount of water on the surface. Ships 

 would be able to sail to ports at the 

 south of Morocco and Algiers where 

 now are shifting sands and few people, 

 and new cities would spring into being 

 far to the south where the new coast 

 line would be formed. 



There are other low and barren spots 

 on the earth's surface that are below 

 sea level. They would form useful 

 basins of water if the proper canals 

 were dug. A compan}' has been formed 

 to let water into the Yuma desert in 

 southern California, where 13,000 

 square miles of land with no inhabi- 

 tants, lies below the sea level, some of 

 it as much as i,ooo feet. A great des- 

 ert in the middle of Australia is also 

 low. If it were flooded it would make 

 of Australia a great rim of continent 

 reaching round an immense sea. 



One scientist has advocated the mak- 

 ing of the Red Sea into a great fresh 

 water lake by changing the course of 

 the Nile so as to make that sea its outlet 

 instead of the Mediterranean. By pre- 

 venting the flow of salt water from the 

 north through the Suez canal, and 

 building an embankment at the south, 

 it has been estimated that the Red Sea 

 would become fresh in the course of 

 time. 



The Red Sea project is not at all 

 likely to be carried out, but those for 

 California and the Sahara may soon be 

 made effective. When the world of 

 commerce comes to realize what the 

 Sahara Sea will mean for its enterprise, 

 there will be a lively prospect of much 

 digging and plent)' of fighting over the 

 damages done to existing interests and 

 the rights of the various European na- 

 tions to the new seaboard that will be 

 formed. 



FEEDING.— One of the duties of 

 the teamster is to see that his horses are 

 well fed. Where the team must be on 

 the road at five in the morning it is the 

 business of the man who feeds them to 

 get up at four to give them time to eat. 

 Incidentally he rubs them down and gets 

 his own breakfast in a leisurely manner. 

 An Ohio man has an electric device 

 which will give the teamster a chance 

 to lie a little longer in the morning. 

 He has arranged an alarm clock which 

 may be set for any hour so that instead 

 of striking the hour it will make an 

 electric connection. This connection 

 lets fall a bag that is placed the night 

 before over the manger of the horse to 

 be fed at that hour in the morning. 

 The first sound that greets the ear of 

 the horse is not the teamster coming 

 to open the stable, but the rattle of 

 oats into his feed-box, and he has am- 

 ple time to eat and begin the operation 

 of digestion before he sees the man 

 who used to be so welcome. Possibl)' 

 he will not greet the man so affection- 

 ately in the future when his coming 

 means not food for a hungry stomach 

 but a hard day's work. But those who 

 know the horse best are inclined to be- 

 lieve that the horse will always greet 

 his master affectionately in the morn- 

 ing regardless of the state of his stom- 

 ach. 



RUBBER.— The use of rubber has 

 grown wonderfully in the last ten years. 

 Every year a rubber famine is pre- 

 dicted, and every year someone an- 



