444 
ARTESIAN WELLS IN TEE DESERT. 
These wells, however, are too few and too scanty in supply 
to serve any other purposes than the domestic wells of other 
countries, and it is blit recently that the transformation of 
desert into cultivable land by this means has been seriously 
attempted. The French Government has bored a large num¬ 
ber of artesian wells in the Algerian desert within a few years, 
and the native sheikhs are beginning to avail themselves of 
the process. Every well becomes the nucleus of a settlement 
proportioned to the supply of water, and before the end of the 
year 1860, several nomade tribes had abandoned their wan¬ 
dering life, established themselves around the wells, and 
planted more than 30,000 palm trees, besides other perennial 
vegetables.* The water is found at a small depth, generally 
from 100 to 200 feet, and though containing too large a pro- 
tions of their industrial operations, painted or carved on the walls of 
their tombs, no trace of the processes employed for so remarkable and im¬ 
portant a purpose should have been discovered. 
It is certain that artesian wells have been common in China from a 
very remote antiquity, and the simple method used by the Chinese—where 
the borer is raised and let fall by a rope, instead of a rigid rod—has been 
lately been employed in Europe with advantage. Some of the Chinese 
wells are said to he 3,000 feet deep ; that of Neusalzwerk in Silesia—the 
deepest in Europe—is 2,300. A well was bored at St. Louis, in Missouri, 
a few years ago, to supply a sugar refinery, to the depth of 2,199 feet. 
This was executed by a private firm in three years, at the expense of only 
$10,000. Another has since been bored at the State capitol at Columbus, 
Ohio, 2,500 feet deep, but without obtaining the desired supply of water. 
* “ In the anticipation of our success at Oum-Thiour, every thing had 
been prepared to take advantage of this new source of wealth without a 
moment’s delay. A division of the tribe of the Selmia, and their sheikh, 
A'issa ben Sha, laid the foundation of a village as soon as the water flowed, 
and planted twelve hundred date palms, renouncing their wandering life to 
attach themselves to the soil. In this arid spot, life had taken the place 
of solitude, and presented itself, with its smiling images, to the astonished 
traveller. Young girls were drawing water at the fountain; the flocks, tho 
great dromedaries with their slow pace, the horses led by the halter, were 
moving to the watering trough ; the hounds and the falcons enlivened the 
group of party-colored tents, and living voices and animated movement 
had succeeded to silence and desolation.” —Laurent, Memoircs sur le Sa¬ 
hara, p. 85. 
