Chad

Chad, a lake of northern Central Africa lying between 12° 50′ and 14° 10′ N. and 13° and 15° E. The lake is situated about 850 ft. above the sea in the borderland between the fertile and wooded regions of the Sudan on the south and the arid steppes which merge into the Sahara on the north. The area of the lake is shrinking owing to the progressive desiccation of the country, Saharan climate and conditions replacing those of the Sudan. The drying-up process has been comparatively rapid since the middle of the 19th century, a town which in 1850 was on the southern margin of the lake being in 1905 over 20 m. from it. On the west the shore is perfectly flat, so that a slight rise in the water causes the inundation of a considerable area—a fact not without its influence on the estimates made at varying periods as to the size of the lake. Around the north-west and north shores is a continuous chain of gently sloping sand-hills covered with bush. This region abounds in big game and birds are plentiful. In the east, the country of Kanem, the desiccation has been most marked. Along this coast is a continuous chain of islands running from north-west to south-east. But what were islands when viewed by Overweg in 1851, formed in 1903 part of the mainland and new islands had arisen in the lake. They are generally low, being composed of sand and clay, and lie from 5 to 20 m. from the shore, which throughout its eastern side nowhere faces open water. The channels between the islands do not exceed 2 m. in width. Two principal groups are distinguished, the Kuri archipelago in the south, and the Buduma in the north. The inhabitants of the last-named islands were noted pirates until reduced to order by the French. The coast-line is, in general, undefined and marshy, and broken into numerous bays and peninsulas. It is also, especially on the east, lined by lagoons which communicate with the lake by intricate channels. The lake is nowhere of great depth, and about midway numerous mud-banks, marshes, islands and dense growths of aqueous plants stretch across its surface. Another stretch of marsh usually cuts off the northernmost part of the lake from the central sections. The open water varies in depth from 3 ft. in the north-west to over 20 in the south, where desiccation is less apparent. Fed by the Shari (q.v.) and other rivers, the lake has no outlet and its area varies according to the season. The flood water brought down by the Shari in December and January causes the lake to rise to a maximum of 24 ft., the water spreading over low-lying ground, left dry again in May or June. But after several seasons of heavy rainfall the waters have remained for years beyond their low-water level. Nevertheless the secular shrinking goes on, the loss by evaporation and percolation exceeding the amount of water received; whilst, on the average, the rainfall is diminishing. In 1870 the lake rose to an exceptional height, but since then, save in 1897, there has been only the normal seasonal rise. The prevalent north-east wind causes at times a heavy swell on the lake. Fish abound in its waters, which are sweet, save at low-level, when they become brackish. The lagoons are believed to act as purifying pans in which the greater part of the salt in the water is precipitated. In the south-west end of the lake the water is yellow, caused by banks of clay; elsewhere it is clear.

The southern basin of Chad is described under the Shari, which empties its waters into the lake about the middle of the southern shore, forming a delta of considerable extent. Beyond the south-east corner of the lake is a depression known as the Bahr-el-Ghazal (not to be confounded with the Nile affluent of the same name). This depression is the termination of what is in all probability the bed of one of the dried-up Saharan rivers. Coming from the Tibesti highlands the Bahr-el-Ghazal has a south-westerly trend to Lake Chad. Near the lake the valley was formerly swampy, and at high-water the lake overflowed into it. There was also at one time communication between the Shari and the Bahr-el-Ghazal, so that the water of the first-named stream reached Chad by way of the Bahr-el-Ghazal. There is now neither inlet nor outlet to the lake in this direction, the mouth of the Ghazal having become a fertile millet field. There is still, however, a distinct current from the Shari delta to the east end of the lake—known to the natives, like the depression beyond, as the Bahr-el-Ghazal—indicative of the former overflow outlet.

Besides the Shari, the only important stream entering Lake Chad is the Waube or Yo (otherwise the Komadugu Yobe), which rises near Kano, and flowing eastward enters the lake on its western side 40 m. north of Kuka. In the rains the Waube carries down a considerable body of water to the lake.

Lake Chad is supposed to have been known by report to Ptolemy, and is identified by some writers with the Kura lake of the middle ages. It was first seen by white men in 1823 when it was reached by way of Tripoli by the British expedition under Dr Walter Oudney, R.N., the other members being Captain Hugh Clapperton and Major (afterwards Lieut.-Colonel) Dixon Denham. By them the lake was named Waterloo. In 1850 James Richardson, accompanied by Heinrich Barth and Adolf Overweg, reached the lake, also via Tripoli, and Overweg was the first European to navigate its waters (1851). The lake was visited by Eduard Vogel (1855) and by Gustav Nachtigal (1870), the last-named investigating its hydrography in some detail. In 1890-1893 its shores were divided by treaty between Great Britain, France and Germany. The first of these nations to make good its footing in the region was France. A small steamer, brought from the Congo by Emile Gentil, was in 1897 launched on the Shari, and reaching the Chad, navigated the southern part of the lake. Communication between Algeria and Lake Chad by way of the Sahara was opened, after repeated failures, by the French explorer F. Foureau in 1899-1900. At the same time a French officer, Lieut. Joalland, reached the lake from the middle Niger, continuing his journey round the north end to Kanem. A British force under Colonel T.L.N. Morland visited the lake at the beginning of 1902, and in May of the same year the Germans first reached it from Cameroon. In 1902-1903 French officers under Colonel Destenave made detailed surveys of the south-eastern and eastern shores and the adjacent islands. In 1903 Captain E. Lenfant, also a French officer, succeeded in reaching the lake (which he circumnavigated) via the Benue, proving the existence of water communication between the Shari and the Niger. In 1905 Lieut. Boyd Alexander, a British officer, further explored the lake, which then contained few stretches of open water. The lake is bordered W. and S.W. by Bornu, which is partly in the British protectorate of Nigeria and partly in the German protectorate of Cameroon. Bagirmi to the S.E. of the lake and Kanem to the N.E. are both French possessions. The north and north-west shores also belong to France. One of the ancient trade routes across the Sahara—that from Tripoli to Kuka in Bornu—strikes the lake at its north-west corner, but this has lost much of its former importance.

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