Irrigation in Egypt and S.A. 445 



work, however, was undertaken, and the foundations and super- 

 structure patched up so as to be fairly secure when subject to a 

 load of about 13 feet of water. It was completed in 1890 at a 

 cost of about ^460,000. Money had been borrowed and spent 

 freely, on the clearing of old canals. Lines of irrigation were 

 disentangled from lines of drainage, and the whole complicated 

 system was, as far as possible for the purpose, remodelled. When 

 it is stated that the yield of the cotton crop alone in Lower Egypt 

 between the years 1890 and 1900 amounted to over 58,000,000 

 kantars, equi\alent, at a very moderate estimate, to a money value 

 of ^100,000,000, it will be evident that the work done and the 

 sums expended have produced no contemptible return. 



Although the first object of irrigation engineers in Egypt was 

 to remodel the Barrage, and to alter and amend the existing canals 

 so as to economise water and improve irrigation from them, 

 the larger question of the development of the country, \vas not lost 

 sight of. 



At the time of the restoration of the Barrage, two systems of 

 irrigation were practised side by side in Egypt. The ancient or 

 basin system was employed in nearly all of Upper Egypt, and the 

 modern or perennial system throughout Lower Egypt. The peren- 

 nial system, applied to suitable lands, is more profitable than the 

 basin system, but depends on the summer supply of the Nile, which 

 is both limited and irregular in quantity. Basin irrigation depends 

 on the flood, which is practically unlimited, and very fairly regular 

 in quantity. 



In Mehemit Ali's time the great preoccupation of the Govern- 

 ment was the pressing on of the cultivation of cotton, and as ihe 

 crop needed perennial irrigation, the securing of an abundant supply 

 of water all the year round was the problem of the day. 



M. Linant recommended a site in Upper Egypt for a vveir and 

 canal head, but the failure of the Barrage discouraged the Govern- 

 ment from undertaking new works, and the question dropped. 



In 1880 Count de la Motte took up the question of reservoirs, 

 and proposed a dam at Gebel Silsila and a reservoir to the south of 

 it. The works were to have cost ^4,000,000, and the reservoir was 

 to have contained 247,000 million cubic feet. As a counter project, 

 Mr. Cope Whitehouse, an American gentleman, in 1882 suggested 

 utilising the Wady Rayan, a depression in the western desert. 

 Financial difficulties and the supposed failure of the Barrage pre- 

 vented the Egyptian Government from seriously considering the 

 question of a reservoir for supplementing the summer discharge of 

 the Nile, as it had insufllicient means of utilising the supplv then 

 existing. The subsequent success of the Barrage gave new life to 

 the question. 



It was naturally the object to ensure a continual supply of 

 water to Lower Egypt, and to replace basin irrigation in Upper 

 Egypt by the more profitable perennial system. 



There were, roughly, about 1,732,000 acres under basin irriga- 

 tion in Upper Egypt, and about 587,000 acres perennially irrigated 



