Page:LA2-NSRW-4-0501.jpg



TUNIS

TUNNEL"

produced abundantly. The olives are specially cultivated for their oil, and the wheat is exported in great quantities. Great herds of cattle graze on the plains, the horses and dromedaries are celebrated, and the sheep are famous for their wool. Copper, iron, lead, mercury, niter, phosphates, salt and silver are found, the production of phosphates being so large that a railway was built to transport it. There also are fine mineral springs and considerable fisheries. Trade is mainly with the interior, which sends gold, gums, ivory and ostrich-feathers for European countries. The people are Arabs mainly, but the population is of the most mixed character, containing traces of the ancient Numidian, Phoenician and Roman elements. There are 128,895 Europeans, Italians numbering 81,156, Frenchmen 34,610, while the native Jews total 60,000. The French army of occupancy numbers 20,362. The prevailing religion is Mohammedanism, and the revenue from Mohammedan property is applied to religious, educational and charitable purposes. The Christians include 35,000 Roman Catholics, with English and French Protestants and the native converts of their missions.

Under the Romans Tunis was about the same  region   as   Carthage. It  was   con-

Suered by the Vandals in the fifth, the yzantines in the sixth and the Arabs in the seventh century. Louis IX of France (St. Louis) invaded it in 1270, Charles V of the Empire in 1525. Turki of Crete made himself master of the land in 1575, acknowledging, however, the suzerainty of the Turkish sultan at Constantinople. His descendants have occupied the throne since 1691, paying tribute to Turkey till 1871. Tunis was a nest of pirates down to 1816. France invaded the country in 1881, and forced the reigning prince, called a bey, to put himself under French protection. Government is administered by the French foreign office through a resident-general and his cabinet of nine ministers, two of these being Arabs. The governors of the 13 districts into which the land is divided are French, their subordinates Arabs. The French have suppressed the slave-trade, lifted burdensome taxes, established courts and provided municipal government for the capital. A department of arts and antiquities has been established, and a national museum formed. There are about 200 French and 1,500 Mohammedan schools, beside many private schools and a Muslim university. The French schools teach nearly 25,000 pupils. There are 704 miles of railroad, all in French hands, and $15,-000,000 are being spent on building 356 miles more and on colonization. There also are 1,750 miles of good highroads, 2,250 of telegraph and 300 of telephone, and about 375 postoffices. The principal commercial

ports are Tunis-Goletta, Susa and Sfax. The chief exports after wheat are barley and oats, cattle and sheep, hides, olive-oil, phosphates, zinc, lead and woolens. The main imports consist of ironwares, wheat, flour, barley, machinery, oats, sugar, coal, woolens, tobacco and coffee.

Tunis, the capital of the protectorate of Tunis, is near the mouth of the Mejirdah, about ten miles from the ruins of Carthage. It has a wall five miles around and a strong castle. The streets are narrow and dirty, and the houses of one story, with no windows on the outside. The bey's palace and some of the mosques are fine buildings, and the bazars are attractive. There are a Muslim, university in the Great Mosque, a Roman Catholic cathedral, a Greek church, an Italian theater and large barracks. A national museum has been founded near Tunis, the Franco-Tunisian government having formed a department of Tunisian arts and antiquities. By means of a canal, opened in 1893, Tunis is accessible to oceanic commerce. It also has railroad connection with Algiers. The manufactures are of silk, wool, leather, soap, wax and olive-oil. Population 177,500, of whom 100,000 are Moslems and 50,000 Jews.

Tun'nel, an underground passage dug out without removing the earth above it. Tunnels are dug under bodies of water, and through mountains when the passage over or around would be less economical or less convenient. They may also be made under roads and streets for convenience of passage. The digging or boring of tunnels presents many different problems, depending on the character of the soil. In a mountainous country the operation usually involves drilling and blasting rock. Water is nearly always met with, particularly under rivers and lakes, and the methods of the pneumatic caisson have to be used. Most tunnels have to be lined with timber or masonry arches, to keep the roof and sides from caving in, and a* common method is to carry forward with the digging a steel tube as lining for the excavation. The cost of tunneling has decreased greatly within a few years, owing to the introduction of special machinery for drilling and excavating. The number of large tunnels is now so great that it is impossible even to list them. The most notable ones in Europe are the Mt. Cenis, eight miles long, costing $15,000,000; the St Gothard, nine miles long, cost $12,000,000; and the Simplon tunnel, 12.3 miles long, cost $14,000,000. The Hoosac tunnel, on the railroad from Boston, Mass., to Troy, New York, is 4f miles long. It was 17 years in construction, and cost $11,000,000. Other notable American tunnels are the Grand Trunk railroad tunnel at Port Huron, Mich., under St. Clair River; the Chicago water-supply tunnel, four miles out under Lake Michigan ;>