Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/146

 llg NORTH-WEST AFRICA. by an irregular escarpment, which at one point forms a hill some 570 feet high, before losing itself in the sands in almost imperceptible undulations. This chain, whose depressions contain the pleasant oases of Jerid, forms a barrier separating the Shott-el- Jerid from the Shott Gharsa, a basin similar to the eastern sebkha, but of much less extent. The Shott Gharsa, shaped like a crescent with its convex side facing northwards, is much lower than the Shott-el-Jerid. It lies entirely below the level of the sea, and if ever a canal should be opened to establish com- munications between this depression and the Mediterranean, its banks would be under water for some 6 miles beyond the present water-mark. The western extremity of the Shott Gharsa penetrates into Algerian territory and stretches on like a huge arm of the sea in front of a labyrinth of much more extensive shotts, known collectively as Melghigh (Melri'ir). The two basins are separated from each other by low-lying ridges and intermediary depressions. According to the project with wliicb the name of Roudaircs is connected, it was the Shott Melghigh which, together with all the adjacent land, was destined to form to the south of Algeria that "inland sea " which, in the imagination of its projectors, was one day to revolutionise the climate of the neighbouring countries, to attract moisture-bear- inrr clouds to the Aures Mountains, to increase the amount of rainfall, to fill permanently the, at present, dried-up beds of the watercourses, and to bring forth from the soil springs which had long ceased to exist. But although it may be difficult to imagine the formation of a navigable course leading from the ridges of Cabcs to the oases of the Algerian desert, it may at least be understood how useful it would be to restore the ancient route which skirted the southern face of the island of Maghreb, between the Lesser Syrtis and the valley of the Draa, Like those of the eastern coast of Tunis, properly so called, the weds of the Tunisian Sahara are almost always without water. The most important in volume, if not in the length of their course, are the Wed Akarit, Wed Melah, and Wed Cabes. The Wed Cabes is hardly 6 miles long, although at high water coasting vessels can sail up it as far as the oasis of the town. The hypothesis has been put forward that the shallow current of the Akarit or Cabes is identical with the " river Triton " of the ancients ; nor is this supposition altogether improbable, especially as the Libyans, as is proved by the legendary hydrography of Africa, readily believe in the existence of subterranean rivers in the region of the sands. Besides, it is an indisputable fact that the basin which receives the Akarit and Cabes is of considerable extent above the springs where the water wells up very copiously. Hence it may be questioned whether some fissure in the rock may not afford an outlet, through the streams flowing to the Mediterranean, to the deep waters concealed beneath the saline crust of the Shott-el-Fejej. The Tunisian Coast and Islands. Although the mountains which continue the Tripolitan " Jebel " approach the coast in southern Tunis, sufficient space has still been left for the formation of sebkhas, amongst others the Sebkha-el- Melah, or " Salt Lagoon," the Bu-Guerara,