His project was then twofold: 1. To dig new wells in the Oued Rhir, give new life to the oases then beginning to yield to the invading sterility, and so win the gratitude of their population: 2. To revive the sandy steppes between that river and Biskra, open the desert to commerce as far as Ouargla or possibly Touat, so that French troops or isolated travelers could enter that region without the fear of dying of thirst.
He experienced some delay, of course, but finally in 1856 the material arrived at Tamerna, and on the 1st of May of that year the first blow was struck by Ali-Bey, the Caid of Tuggurt. The work was pushed rapidly forward, and on the 9th of June water issued in volumes. Lieutenant Rose, of the French army, describes the scene as being most affecting, comparing it to the miracle of Moses drawing water from the rock by the touch of his rod; the old skeik prostrates himself, mothers bathe their children in it, and it is blessed and named the Fountain of Peace. The issue of water was 69,725 gallons a day, temperature of 70° Fahr.
The news spread like wildfire, and the commandant of the province of Constantine was besieged with petitions from other oases to do as well by them. In eight years, 1856 to 1864, the French Government established in that vicinity (between the Ziban oases and the river Rhir) seventy-two artesian wells, of which twenty-four had been previously abandoned in course of execution by the natives. They cost altogether 290,000 francs ($55,970), had an aggregate depth of boring of 11,106 feet and a total first issue of 17,600 gallons per minute. The deepest was at Chegga, 364 feet; the least depth at which water was found was twenty feet. The ordinary depth was between 160 and 225 feet, and the average temperature 76° Fahr. The largest issue of any was 1,267 gallons a minute from that of Sidi Amran, 255 feet deep. In 1878 there were in Algeria 22,360 metres of wells, yielding 22,000 litres of water a second; their total cost was 2,350,000 francs.
The ground of the Sahara is so impregnated with various salts that the water of these wells, pure at first, becomes temporarily brackish. Analyses made by MM. Ville, Vatonne, and De Marigny show that each litre contained one to three grammes of sulphate of soda, one to two grammes sulphate of lime, besides chloride of soda, various salts of magnesium, and carbonate of lime.
A peculiarity of the wells is that tiny little fish, resembling small whitebait, are brought up in the water. They were first noticed by General Zickel in the water spouting from the well of Aïn-Tala, which is 145 feet deep. The length of these little creatures does not exceed one and a quarter inch. Their eyes are well shaped, although they emerge from regions so dark. They are malacopterygians, of the species Cyprinodon cyanocaster. Similar specimens have been found in some of the ancient wells of Egypt that were cleared by M. Ayme;
