Page:The National Geographic Magazine Vol 16 1905.djvu/107

Rh a very mobile and acclimatized troop. It was decided therefore to undertake the creation of troops mounted on "meharis" and composed of natives under the command of French officers. This organization was inspired from that of the famous "dromedary companies" instituted by Bonaparte in Egypt, and by that of the "camel corps" recently adopted in the Sudan by the British army.

Since that time the French troops have been on an equality of speed and mobility with the Touaregs, while their superiority of arms ensures victory even against superior numbers.

These Saharan troops once organ- ized, the officers commanding the ex- treme southern posts upon the Algerian frontier undertook long raids into the Sahara, traversing and surveying vast unknown regions and at the same time acting as a vigilant police. On March 26, 1 901, the Touaregs having come to rob the people of Tidikelt, Lieutenant Cottenest started with 130 native troops and reached the mountain mass of the Hoggar and inflicted a severe lesson upon the brigands, returning to In- Sala after having traveled 1,000 miles in 62 days in a country entirely hostile. The same year, from the 16th of May to the 15th of June, Major Laperrine explored the Mouydir, a plateau sur- rounded by valleys from 200 to 300 meters deep and containing an abun- dance of water, wood, and excellent pasture.

Some time later, in 1902, Lieuten- ant Guilho-Lohan returned to the Hog- gar plateau and pushed south to 22 0 latitude north. In 1903 Lieutenant Besset effected a raid of 750 miles in the south, and some months later Major Laperrine, accompanied by Professor Gautier, directed a new reconnaissance in the Mouydir and the Ahnet. At the same time Captain Pein effected a raid round the Temassinine in the region situated farther east.

These different expeditions have com- pleted and transformed the situation of the Sahara. The Touaregs, finding themselves chastised for the smallest act of rapine and always overtaken in their haunts, have now given their submis- sion to Captain Metois, commanding at In-Sala. Only the tribe of Azguers, which wanders in the eastern Sahara, has as yet refused to accept French domination.

Accordingly a new and decisive oper- ation was undertaken. At the com- mencement of February, 1904, Major Laperrine, quitting In-Sala at the head of a troop of 1 ' meharistes ' ' and taking his route south, succeeded in travers- ing the Sahara and meeting a second troop of ' ' meharistes ' ' which had set out from Timbuctoo. In this way was effected the junction of Algeria with the Niger, previously accomplished by M. Foureau, but now by a more eastern route.

In this expedition Major Laperrine was accompanied by an astronomer, M. Villate. From a geographical point of view these raids have had very im- portant results. The officers who have commanded them have brought back precise methods and numerous obser- vations of interest. As a result of the reconnaissance in which he took part in 1903, Professor Gautier has made a geological map of Mouydir and Ahnet, in the very center of the Sahara.

The junction of the parties from In- Sala and Timbuctoo took place on April 18, at the well of Tioniaoune by 20 0 10' north latitude. The party from Algeria, under Commandant Laperrine, had come through Inzize and Timissao. After he succeeded in joining hands with the southern party, the commandant pushed a little farther south, as far as the well of Tin Zaouatem by 19 0 57' north latitude, but soon resumed the journey northward to In-Sala, follow- ing a fresh itinerary. Scarcity of water and the heat (it was in May) made the