CONQUEST OF THE SAHARA.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17707, 8 March 1923, Page 10

CONQUEST OF THE SAHARA.

DESIGN OF THE CATERPILLAR CARS. NEW ERA OF DESERT TRAVEL. (XBOJT OCE OWN COKBESPOKBEin.) LONDON, January 26. Major Gordon Home, writing in the "Observer," sees in the- recent feat of .tho French Expedition in crossing the Sahara a new era of desert travel. Allowing for the efficiency of the members of the party, their combined skill and knowledge, he says, could not havo availed against thu conditions of Saharan travel without something superior to any ordinary car or caterpillar. The factor which enabled tho four cars to maintain an average speed of over 112 miles a day was the amazingly clever invention known as the Kegresso Hinstin caterpillar. This consists of an endless band of heavy rubber held in place by a broad articulated flange running on two pulley wheels which are not rigidly attached to tho chassis of tho car, The front pair only rest on the ground by their own weight, and rise and fall as they encounter any object, and the space between the front and back pulleys (the latter drive the endless bands) is filled with four small roller wheels. These are arranged in pairs," each working on very supple springs attached to tho main axlo. Thus, not only does the whole plane of each caterpillar alter according to the surface presented, but it presents a great length of yielding surface which undulates over rocks, stones, ledges, and other irregularities without any real interference with the propulsive power of the drive. Instead, therefore, of crawling along at three I or four miles an hour, the ear fitted with thi3 most clever invention moves with a rapidity which has now been tested for three \veek3 in the severest | conditions. Exterminating Robber Bands. If the experience of this first journey by the new means of propulsion implies that roads are not an essential feature of travel in tho Sahara, we are seeing the first streak of a new dawn which will dissipate the gloom of ignorance hitherto obscuring this great zone of Africa. In the first place adequate surveys for the best routes for road engineering can be made with speed and safety. Following will come the work of sinking wells in likely places—generally in the old river beds —and at each tho establishment of a small military post with its own caterpillar cars, which will enablo small flying columns to move rapidly '■ against any "rezzou, "■ or nomadic marauding parties mounted on camels. By this means the days of such desert j robber bands will be numbered. Unable to reach the very few wells, their I movements will bo more and more restricted, and the desert will offer less and less in the way of plunder. Hallway Development.

These developments should take place in a comparatively short time, and after them railway construction will become a comparatively- simple matter. Which of the various projects now on paper will first claim attention it is not easy to forecast. It is however, very possible that tho route just traversed, or something approximating to it, will be .the first to be fully surveyed.. Tho scheme is to prolong the line already flung out into the waste of level sand as far as Touggourt, a large oasis some distance south of Biskra. This would give tho picturesque little port of Philippevillo the distinction of being th& Mediterranean extremity of a railway which might one day not very remote bo linked with Johannesburg and Cape Town. That such a railway will be built in the present century may bo counted a certainty; only its route seems open to question. If the track of the expedition is followed the line will skirt the massif of the Hoggar and givo passengers a glimpse of Ilaman, tho dominating height (over 9000 ft) which must have formed tho centre of a highly picturesque island .if the Sahara were at any time covered by the sea. Prom this point the railway would bifurcate. One line would run southwards to ■ the Niger, and so to Timbuctoo and Hombari, in the French Soudan, while what might become the great Central African Trunk Route would go south-eastwards through the fertile district of Air to .Lake Tchad. If tho British Nigerian railway now built as far as Gano were extended northwards, it would join the French system west of Lake Tchad, and thus give all the advantages of an outlet to the north and rapid communication with the central regions of tho continent.

Other railway projects are being thought out by which the extension southwards of tho Moroccan system will givo communication through tho Spanish territory of Eio del Oro with llauretania, Senegal, and Timbuctoo. It is more than possible that both these lines will be built, but the more central has the greatest possibilities, for, by plunging right into tho heart of tho continent, its future holds the greatest opportunities. Also it avoids the criticism made against tho Cape-to-Cairo route that, in following too closely the eastern side of Africa, it wastes itself in running paralled with steamship routes, instead of tapping the interior and so feeding the eastern ports. The use of similar caterpillar cars naturally suggests itself for the exploration of certain parts of the interior of Australia.