Speaker 1: Section twenty four of Birds and All Nature, Volume seven,
Speaker 1: n two, February nineteen hundred. This is a LibriVox recording.
Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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Speaker 1: by Betty B. The Young Naturalists, Sahara Ce. Much of
Speaker 1: the Great Desert of Sahara is below the level of
Speaker 1: the Atlantic. It is proposed that the water be let
Speaker 1: in the space covered would be big enough to warrant
Speaker 1: us in speaking of it as an ocean. There would
Speaker 1: be islands in it, as there are places that are
Speaker 1: of considerable elevation. So much water would make a difference
Speaker 1: in climate in all directions from the present desert. It
Speaker 1: is thought the vineyards of southern Europe would be injured,
Speaker 1: as they are dependent on the dry winds that come
Speaker 1: across the meadows terranean from the Great Desert. The rainfall
Speaker 1: and at least one third of the inhabited parts of
Speaker 1: the globe would be affected by this great change in
Speaker 1: the amount of water on the surface. Ships would be
Speaker 1: able to sail to ports at the south of Morocco
Speaker 1: and Algiers, where now are shifting sands and few people
Speaker 1: and new cities would spring into being far to the
Speaker 1: south where the new coastline would be formed. There are
Speaker 1: other low and barren spots on the Earth's surface that
Speaker 1: are below sea level. They would form useful basins of
Speaker 1: water if the proper canals were dug. A company has
Speaker 1: been formed to let water into the Yuma Desert in
Speaker 1: southern California, where thirteen thousand square miles of land with
Speaker 1: no inhabitants lies below the sea level, some of it
Speaker 1: as much as one thousand feet. A great desert in
Speaker 1: the middle of Australia is also low. If it were flooded,
Speaker 1: it would make of Australia a great rim of coon
Speaker 1: reaching round an immense sea. One scientist has advocated the
Speaker 1: making of the Red Sea into a great fresh water
Speaker 1: lake by changing the course of the Nile so as
Speaker 1: to make that sea its outlet instead of the Mediterranean.
Speaker 1: By preventing the flow of salt water from the north
Speaker 1: through the Suez Canal and building an embankment at the south,
Speaker 1: it has been estimated that the Red Sea would become
Speaker 1: fresh in the course of time. The Red Sea project
Speaker 1: is not at all likely to be carried out, but
Speaker 1: those for California and the Sahara may soon be made effective.
Speaker 1: When the world of commerce comes to realize what the
Speaker 1: Sahara Sea will mean for its enterprise, there will be
Speaker 1: a lively prospect of much digging and plenty of fighting
Speaker 1: over the damages done to existing interests and the rights
Speaker 1: of the various European nations to the new sea board
Speaker 1: that will be formed. Feeding. One of the duties of
Speaker 1: the teamster is to see that his horses are well fed.
Speaker 1: Where the team must be on the road at five
Speaker 1: in the morning, it is the business of the man
Speaker 1: who feeds them to get up at four to give
Speaker 1: them time to eat. Incidentally, he rubs them down and
Speaker 1: gets his own breakfast in a leisurely manner. An Ohio
Speaker 1: man has an electric device which will give the teamster
Speaker 1: a chance to lie a little longer in the morning.
Speaker 1: He is arranged an alarm clock, which may be set
Speaker 1: for any hour, so that instead of striking the hour,
Speaker 1: it will make an electric connection. This connection lets fall
Speaker 1: a bag that is placed the night before over the
Speaker 1: manger of the horse to be fed at that hour
Speaker 1: in the morning, the first sound that greets the air
Speaker 1: of the horse is not the teamster coming to open
Speaker 1: the stable, but the rattle of oats into his feed box,
Speaker 1: and he has ample time to eat and begin the
Speaker 1: operation of digestion before he sees the man who used
Speaker 1: to be so welcome. Possibly he will not greet the
Speaker 1: man so affectionately in the future, when his coming means
Speaker 1: not food for a hungry stomach but a hard day's work.
Speaker 1: But those who know the horse best are inclined to
Speaker 1: believe that the horse will always greet his master affectionately
Speaker 1: in the morning, regardless of the state of his stomach. Rubber.
Speaker 1: The use of rubber has grown wonderfully in the last
Speaker 1: ten years. Every year a rubber famine is predicted, and
Speaker 1: every year someone announces that a substitute has been found
Speaker 1: that is just as good as the real article. The
Speaker 1: facts seem to indicate that neither the famine nor the
Speaker 1: substitute is really at hand. Rubber plantations are being extended
Speaker 1: in Mexico to meet the demands of the growing trade,
Speaker 1: but the bulk of our rubber still comes from the
Speaker 1: Amazon country in South America, and that country is almost
Speaker 1: limitless in its supplies of this article. It is true
Speaker 1: that the trees along the banks of the rivers have
Speaker 1: been tapped until their product is much inferior to what
Speaker 1: it once was. But this condition exists only for a
Speaker 1: distance of two or three miles along the river banks.
Speaker 1: There are plenty of magnificent trees standing untouched a little
Speaker 1: farther back. All that is needed to get more rubber
Speaker 1: is to get more men into these forests gathering it.
Speaker 1: The real difficulty is to get the men to do
Speaker 1: the work. The finest rubber forests remaining near the river
Speaker 1: fronts are along the Puris, one of the large rivers
Speaker 1: flowing into the Amazon from the south. Sunshine caught. For
Speaker 1: thousands of years, men have tried to use the heat
Speaker 1: of the sun's rays in the place of fire. It
Speaker 1: is now claimed that doctor William Calver of Washington has
Speaker 1: finished an invention which will bring into the space of
Speaker 1: a few inches all the rays of heat from the
Speaker 1: sun that would naturally fall upon one acre of ground.
Speaker 1: By bringing so many rays to a focus, he gets
Speaker 1: such a powerful heat that iron and steel melt in
Speaker 1: it like icicles. A magnifying glass or lens of almost
Speaker 1: any sort held in the sunshine makes a bright warm spot.
Speaker 1: Doctor Calver's machine gets the same effect, only more powerfully.
Speaker 1: He has secured a temperature of several thousand degrees fahrenheit
Speaker 1: to make his machine useful for heating houses and making
Speaker 1: steam for factories. He has invented a reservoir to store
Speaker 1: the heat gathered while the sun is shining, so that
Speaker 1: it may be used at night or on dark days.
Speaker 1: Men of science have been looking for such a machine
Speaker 1: for a long time, and if doctor Calver and his
Speaker 1: friends are not much mistaken, his invention will be as
Speaker 1: great a help to civilization as the harnessing of Niagara
Speaker 1: falls for electric work. His laboratory is in the outskirts
Speaker 1: of Washington, d c. End of Section one, twenty four