THE DESERTS OF AFRICA AND ASIA. 359 



ments of ancient civilisation have disappeared, and it is the glorious task 

 of France to make them revive once more in Algeria. Her exertions 

 have been crowned with success, and, without mentioning any of the 

 numerous improvements which this country has received, and which 

 really have transformed it in a most marvellous vi^ay,' the creation of the 

 admirable network of artesian wells established on a line of about 500 

 miles of length, and penetrating every day deeper in the desert, would 

 be quite sufficient to secure to Prance a prominent place in the history of 

 civilisation, infinitely superior to that occupied by her most splendid 

 conquerors. 



The annexation of Algeria is one of those events which philo- 

 sophers and philanthropists must hail with joy ; to them it matters 

 very little if countries rescued from the iron hands of barbarism and 

 restored to civilisation may be called Cyprus, Algiers, Tunis, Herat, 

 Alexandria, <fec., or if the resurrection of such countries is promoted by 

 a Latin, German, or Slavonian race ; all those petty national distinctions 

 and susceptibilities vanish before the eternal tribunal of humanity and 

 Christianity, which bestows the laurels of the conqueror only on the 

 deliverer and restorer of oppressed nations. 



The artesian wells of Algeria suggest still many other scientific con- 

 siderations, but I will limit myself to a few words upon the probable 

 origin of the subterranean waters which feed these wells, and of the 

 enormous sand-accumulations which cover the deserts. 



In the Lybian desert, which is only the eastern continuation of the 

 Sahara, Dr. Zittel is of opinion that between the oasis of Siwah (the seat 

 of the famous temple of Jupiter Ammon, visited by Alexander the Great) 

 and the Nile there is a large subterranean depression excavated in the 

 impermeable clays and marls which compose the underground of the 

 great part of the desert ; the strata of the northern side of the depression 

 dip to the south, so as to prevent the water gathered in it from escaping 

 to the Mediterranean ; those waters, which are furnished by the copious 

 rains falling in the mountainous tracts of Central Africa, penetrate until 

 they reach the impermeable clays, and in this way are carried to the 

 above-mentioned natural reservoir. The supposed stratigraphical condi- 

 tions of this depression have been suggested to the German geologist by 

 the sections which he observed in the oasis Beharrich, situated near the 

 Siwah oasis, where the strata of clay and marl are perceived to dip to 

 the south. 



Some such natural reservoir may exist equally in the Sahara, but as 

 far as I am aware nothing of that kind has been yet ascertained there, so 

 that in the present state of our knowledge we are reduced to the suppo- 

 sition that its subterranean waters are chiefly produced by the rains in 

 the mountainous country forming its northern boundary, among which 

 the Aures range plays an important part. Most probably the water 

 furnished by those mountains (for in the Sahara itself rain is very rare) 

 oozes through the different open crevices, joints, vaults, etc., and 

 penetrates into the impermeable argillaceous strata. At any rate, the 

 above-mentioned presence of fishes and crabs in the well of Mezer, prove 

 that a communication between the atmosphere and the subterranean 

 waters must exist, otherwise no animal (at least of the higher classes) 

 could live there. 



' This I have endeavoured to prove in my work Espame, Alqerie et Tunine, 

 Paris, 1880. 



