FORESTR V 
205 
the Nile valley were covered by trees. What a different aspect 
must that ancient home of civilisation have presented in the 
early ages to what it does now. I would here recall the fact 
that since the upper provinces of Egypt fell under the baneful 
rule of the Khalifa, the date palms, a source of wealth and basis 
for taxation, have been much reduced in numbers. 
One step further brings us to Northern Africa, with its vast 
desert of Sahara, which was once believed to be the even bed 
of an ancient sea, it being only needed to cut a waterway 
from the Mediterranean or Atlantic to flood it ; but now we find 
that it has a very varied surface, with mountains rising to an 
altitude of 8,000 feet, the beds of dried-up rivers and water not 
far from the surface in many parts, generally at depths of from 
10 to 300 feet, and in abundance. Some of the mountains are 
snow-capped for three months of the year, and when the snow 
melts the river-beds are filled with roaring torrents, which are 
lost in the sand before they get to the sea. This was not always 
so, the rivers Ighargar and Mya once found their way to the 
Mediterranean through the shotts or salt lakes of Algeria and 
Tunis. This, with the other information we have, points to the 
conclusion that this vast territory was once, thousands of years 
ago, a fertile land, the seat of an ancient civilisation, and that 
its present condition is to be attributed to the agency of man 
in cutting down the forests. Those of us who have watched 
the doings of the French people in Africa know that they have 
persistently endeavoured, and are now doing their utmost, to 
obtain possession of the entire land surrounding the Sahara, 
that they are at this minute exploiting the desert, opening up 
fresh trade routes across it, sinking wells and planting trees, and 
who shall say that within the next two or three centuries the 
great Sahara may not be again under man’s control, with 
sufficient trees and forests and water in the rivers, and support- 
ing a population numbering its hundreds of millions, instead of 
the possibly two and a-half millions of the present day ? 
Indeed, it does not seem to be other than the truth to say 
that the great expanses of sandy desert are not the result of 
natural causes, but the result of man’s destructive work. Of 
course there must be portions of the earth without trees : a drive 
into the Engadine over the Fluela Pass will convince one of 
this, for as one approaches the pass the fir trees become smaller 
and smaller till they cease to exist. But when it is suggested 
that the deserts of Sahara, of Egypt, of Arabia, of India, are 
natural deserts, I, for one, cannot believe it. All these deserts 
can and will be, in my opinion, reclaimed by man. These may 
be large ideas, but they are not too large for scientific French- 
men, who, let us remember, cut the Suez Canal, when we said 
it was an impracticable scheme. The African railways spoken 
of in M. Zola’s “ Paris ” will ere long be a reality. 
This essay will be quite incomplete without some reference 
to the British Empire. One might expect, with the great extent 
