No. 38.
Mr. Heap to Mr. Hunter.
Tunis, June 14, 1875. (Received July 8.)
Sir: A scientific commission, in charge of the Marquis Antinoré, a distinguished African traveler, and Captain Baratieri, of the engineer corps of the Italian army, has been sent by the Royal Geographical Society of Italy to make a careful and thorough survey of the basin in the Great Desert south of the Aures range, and to examine the barrier which separates it from the sea at Gabes. Another party was sent some time since by the French government to make a similar survey south of Biskra, in the province of Algeria. It is how likely that this interesting question will soon be definitively solved. It is still thought, however, that the obstacles to the creation of an inland sea at this point are insuperable.
I am, &c.,