The exploration of Tibesti, Erdi, Borkou, and Ennedi in 1912-1917 : $b a mission entrusted to the author by the French InstituteTilho, Jean
History
The exploration of Tibesti, Erdi, Borkou, and Ennedi in 1912-1917 : $b a mission entrusted to the author by the French Institute
Tilho, Jean
Chad -- Description and travel
A third important result has been to reveal the geographical form of
important mountain masses like Tibesti and Ennedi, hitherto shown in a
very imperfect fashion on the maps of Africa, and the existence of
another important massif called that of Erdi, connecting the two above
mentioned. Moreover, the information we received permits us to reveal to
geographers the existence in the centre of the Lybian desert of yet
another mountain mass, the Djebel El Aouinat, situated about 150 miles
south-east of the oasis of Koufra, and of which the altitude probably
exceeds 4000 feet.
A fourth interesting result has been the precise determination of the
difference of longitude Paris-Faya by direct hearing of the wireless
time-signals of the Eiffel Tower. Numerous rectifications of the
positions attributed to various important points have resulted, the most
notable being that which throws more than 50 miles to the N.N.W. the
positions attributed by Nachtigal to Bardaï, the peak of Toussidé, the
valley of Zouar, etc.
A fifth important result is furnished by the discovery in northern
Borkou of the _Harlania Harlani_, which authorizes us to affirm the
Upper Silurian age of all the sandstone sedimentary formations of
Tibesti, Erdi, and Ennedi.
A sixth point will also, no doubt, be remarked by geographers: from the
peak of Toussidé that dominates the north-west of the Tibestian massif
to the Djebel Marra overlooking the plains of south-western Dar Four,
that is to say, for more than 800 miles in a straight line, numerous
hypsometric determinations have been effected which modify—sometimes by
several thousand feet—the altitudes of the chief summits of the mountain
chain that separates the basin of the Chad from that of the
Mediterranean: in Tibesti, Toussidé, 10,700 feet instead of 8200, Emi
Koussi, 11,200 feet; in Ennedi, the plateau of Erdébé, 4300 feet; in
Tama, the peak of Niéré, 4700 feet; in Dar Four, the peak of Dourboullé,
7200 feet, the Djebel Marra, 9800 feet instead of 6000. These figures
are given merely as an indication subject to the rectifications that
will follow the revision now proceeding of the summary calculations
rapidly effected during my journey.
Lastly, the establishment of the geographical liaison between the Niger,
the Chad, and the Nile, by a chain of astronomical positions determined
with very satisfactory exactitude, constitutes a seventh result, all the
more interesting in that it will permit the drawing up of four sheets of
the international map of the world, thanks to the 10,000 kilometres of
surveys traced by my collaborators and myself during this long
expedition.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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