Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/409

 Beni-Saf, Mostaganem, Tenes, Shershell, Dellys, Bougie, Cello, and La Calle, still await the branches that are to connect them with the trunk line. These, however, have all been either begun or at least projected. All the companies have received Government aid by advances and concession of land. Yet in certain places, especially between Algiers and Blida, and on the Philippeville-Constantine section, the local traffic has already begun to yield ample returns on the capital originally invested. The tariff is everywhere very high, sufficient interest on the outlay being guaranteed by the Government to render the companies independent of the

public favour. Hence along all the lines ordinary coaches are able to compete successfully with the locomotives.

South of the great central artery, three lines already penetrate to the plateaux in the direction of the Sahara. One of these runs from Constantine to Batna, another from Saida to Mesheria, and the third from Sidi-bel-Abbes to Ras-el-Ma, Thanks to these new means of communication, colonisation may now be diffused throughout the plateaux better than in the regions lying between Aumale and Laghwat.

The great continental line across the desert to the Niger, first proposed by MacCarthy, will probably run from Algiers through Blida and the Upper Isser Valley to the upland plateaux, and so on by Laghwat and the Wed Jeddi Valley to the Sahara and Timbuktu. But several alternative projects have been suggested, and several important expeditions have been undertaken to survey the ground