THE IH RIG A TION A GE. 91 



will be nothing like this change, except the conditions that resulted 

 in primeval times when the earth underwent one of its terrible 

 convulsions. 



Where a barren rock, sandy waste now exists, there will, on 

 completion of the Nile dam, spring up a vast inland sea with a surface 

 area of over 200 square miles. The sea. or lake, will extend back 

 into Nubia from the Egyptian frontier for a distance of about 130 

 miles. To the north the entire character of the Nile and Nile country 

 will be changed for a distance of 600 miles, the changes reaching 

 clear into Cairo, and beyond into the delta, and to the Mediterranean 

 coast. Fcr it is one of the marvels of this wonderful work that the 

 water imprisoned behind the dam at the little town of Assuan will 

 bring about the recalamation and cultivation of vast tracks 700 

 miles away in the delta to the north. At present only about one- 

 third of the land lying between the two mouths of the Nile is under 

 cultivation. It is by long odds the richest in Egypt, probably in the 

 world. A comparatively few years ago it was all a marshy waste. 



In 1861 there was completed under French supervision what is 

 known as the "barrage," a dam at the apex of the delta, just above 

 Cairo. The barrage, a comparatively unimportant piece of work, had 

 taken twenty- four years to build. It was intended to raise the water 

 level for navigation purposes during the low Nile. Though it had 

 cost thousands of lives, and taken a quarter of a century to construct, 

 it proved but a limited process. So insecurely had it been planned 

 that in 1863 the sluice gates had to be hurriedly revised to prevent the 

 whole structure from being swept away and washed in sections to the 

 Mediterranean. It was reinforced by the French engineers in charge 

 and managed to do part of the work intended for it, but only a part 

 It was never strong enough to serve any great area in the delta until 

 the English came into exclusive control in 1883. Then Sir Colin Mon- 

 rieff, the English diplomatic agent and actual ruler of Egypt, took the 

 barrage in hand. Under his administration the dam was built up, and 

 made as effective as its early faulty construction permitted. Gradually 

 the growing area in the delta was increased until today something 

 over a million acres are growing the finest cotton in the world. 

 What was formerly a sullen unclaimed waste is now yielding 30,000,000 

 annually in crops. 



It is related that the barrage, worthless as it is as an engineering 

 work of permanent value, almost cost the world the existence of its 

 most ancient and inspiring monuments the great pyramids. The con- 

 struction of the work was undertaken while Mehemet Ali, ''the great," 

 was khedive of Egypt. After he had decided on the dam, he placed 

 Mongel Bey, a French engineer in charge. 



"Where am I to get the stone for the barrage?" asked the French- 

 man. 



"There," said Mehemet Ali, pointing to the pyramids. "From 



