1902.] on the Nile Dams and Reservoir. 187 



tions were considered to be of no mean order, as he was a descendant 

 of the Prophet, very rich, and had been twice warned by the Govern- 

 ment that he would probably be hanged if any more bodies of servants 

 he had quarrelled with were found floating in the Nile. He was a 

 very stout old man, and, between paroxysms of bronchial coughing^ 

 he assured me that there could be nothing in the project of a Nile 

 reservoir, or it would have been done at least 4000 years ago. In 

 contrast with this I may mention that, a few mouths ago, the most 

 modern and enlightened of all the rulers of Egypt, the present 

 Khedive, when visiting the Dam, said he was proud that the great 

 work was being carried out during his reign, and that the good ser- 

 vices rendered by his British engineers was evidenced by the London 

 County Council coming to his Public Works Staff for their chief 

 engineer. 



The old system of irrigation, which the descendant of the Prophet 

 looked back upon with regret, was little more than a high Nile 

 flooding of different areas of land or basins surrounded by embank- 

 ments. Less than a hundred years ago, perennial irrigation was first 

 attempted to be introduced, by cutting deep canals to convey the 

 water to the lands when the Nile was at its low summer level. When 

 the Nile rose, these canals had to be blocked by temporary earthen 

 dams, or the current would have wrought destruction. As a result, 

 they silted up, and had to be cleared of many millions of tons of 

 mud each year by enforced labour, much misery and extortion 

 resulting therefrom. About half a century ago, the first serious 

 attempt to improve matters was made by the construction of the 

 celebrated barrage at the apex of the Delta. This work consists, 

 in effect, of two brick arched viaducts crossing the Rosetta and 

 Damietta branches of the Nile, having together 132 arches of 

 16 ft. 4 in. span, which were entirely closed by iron sluices during 

 the summer months, thus heading up the water some 15 ft., and 

 throwing it at a high level into the main irrigation canals below 

 Cairo. The latter are six in number, the largest being the central 

 canal at the apex of the Delta, which, even in the exceptionally dry 

 time of June 1900, was carrying a volume of water one-fourth 

 greater than the Thames in mean flood, whilst the two canals right 

 and left of the two branches of the river carried together one-half 

 more than the Thames, and the Ismailieh Canal, running down to 

 the Suez Canal, though starved in supply, was still a river twice the 

 size of the Thames at the same time of the year. At flood times the 

 discharges of all the canals are, of course, enormously increased. It 

 will be recognised at once, therefore, that, as in the summer months 

 the whole flow of the Nile is arrested and thrown into the aforesaid 

 canals, the old barrage will always remain the most important work 

 connected with the irrigation of Egypt. It was constructed under 

 great difficulties by French engineers, subject to the passing whims 

 of their Oriental chiefs. About fifteen years elapsed between the 

 commencement of the work and the closing of all the sluices, and 



