92 THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



those great useless heaps. Use them up, every block, if need be." 



Mehernet All, it is related, was not a gentleman to be trifled with. 

 He was an autocrat of the kind who figure in the "Arabian Nights." 

 The engineer was literally between the devil and the deep sea. As an 

 European he knew what would happen .o him if he destroyed the pyr- 

 amids. The entire civilized world would call down maledictions on his 

 head and his name would be ever infamous where he would have it 

 great. On the other hand was Mehemet All, with all the Egyptian 

 scorn and disregard for the great antiquities that abound in the oldest 

 country on earth. Even to this day the Egyptians care nothing for 

 these hoary monuments except as they serve to attract tourists and 

 backsheesh. To reason with Mehemet, therefore, on the score of sac- 

 riligious vandalism was worse than useless. So Mongel Bey got his 

 wits to work. He came to his master the next day and said that elabo- 

 rate calculations had convinced him that it would cost more to trans- 

 port the pyramid stones than it would to quarry the living rock out of 

 the adjacent hills. 



"Very well, then quarry it," said the practical Mehemet tersely, 

 and the pyramids were saved to the world by the Frenchman's ingeni- 

 ous lie. 



Prom the first year that the English found themselves in control 

 of Egypt under the "occupation" they determined on an extension of 

 the irrigation system. Land in Egypt constitutes the great source of 

 taxation and wealth. Every acre under cultivation in the country is 

 worth $105 and pays on an average $4 per acre in direct taxes. The 

 average annual yield when water is plentiful is about $25 an acre. 

 Every acre that is added therefore means an addition of $4 per year 

 to the national treasury, or what is of more importance to the poor 

 paasants who till the soil, every acre reclaimed from the desert means 

 a proportionate lowering of the general tax rate It is estimated that 

 the addition to come through the construction of the dam will reduce 

 the taxation of the Egyptian peasants by one-fourth. At present only 

 10,500 square miles of territory, out of a total area of over 400,000 

 square miles comprised within the limits of Egypt are arable. The 

 The arable area comprises simply the ribbon- like strip along the Nile. 

 Practically all the rest of the country is a howlirg desert. The work 

 now under way will add 2,500 square miles to the "Nile" country. Of 

 this about one-half will be added outright, changed from waste land to 

 garden. The other half will be changed from "one crop" land to three 

 and four crop land. The "one crop" land lies along the Nile out of 

 reach of the waters now distributed by the irrigating canals. It re- 

 ceives the overflow of the Nile and high water only. As the waters 

 recede the peasants hastily plant a crop of fast-maturing vegetables 

 in the rich deposit left by the stream. Under the system that will 

 come with the completion of the great engineering work, there will be 



