j 8 The National Geographic Magazine 



At the moment when this expedition 

 was setting out the French government 

 gave up the defensive attitude, and, 

 abandoning the merely defensive policy 

 observed since the Flatters mission in 

 1 88 1, decided to extend further south- 

 ward the zone of French influence, which 

 then did not pass 30 0 latitude north. On 

 the 28th of December, 1899, M. Flamand, 

 a naturalist, was instructed to make a 

 study of the region which it was pro- 

 posed to annex, and was attacked at In- 



Mediterranean to the northern curve of 

 the Niger at Timbuctoo. 



This military advance has had inter- 

 esting results from the point of view of 

 geography. An excellent map on the 

 scale of 1:250,000 has been made by 

 Lieutenant Nieger of the whole region 

 of Touat and Tidikelt, hitherto im- 

 perfectly known. Moreover, M. Fla- 

 mand has published interesting notes on 

 the morphology and geology of this part 

 of the desert. To ensure protection of 



Sala. Immediately the French troops 

 advanced on their "meharis," com- 

 manded by Captains Germain and Pein, 

 two brilliant Sahara officers. Some 

 months later the French occupied the 

 chain of oases of Gourara, Touat, and 

 Tidikelt, more than 300 kilometers in 

 length, which runs along the subter- 

 ranean courses of rivers descending from 

 the high plateaus of Morocco and Al- 

 geria. In this way the French had ad- 

 vanced nearly half the distance from the 



the oases thus acquired against the in- 

 cursions of the Touaregs, the military 

 authorities recognized the necessity of 

 abandoning the old mistake of simply 

 remaining on the defensive. In order 

 to assure the tranquillity of the country, 

 it was necessary at the first attack from 

 the brigand tribes to pursue them vigor- 

 ously through the desert, and not to 

 give up until a sharp lesson had been 

 inflicted. 



This result could only be obtained by 



