94 THE IRRIGA TION A GE. 



has subsided, but while the river is still at its highest, gates between. j 

 these piers will be closed, making the structure solid and confining 

 the water as effectually as would a solid masonry dam. 



When the parching summer months come, the imprisoned water 

 will be released as fast as needed. The supply, however, will come, 

 not from the top, but from the bottom, where lies the deposit which. 

 the river brings down from the Abyssinian mountains and which, de- 

 posited on the sandy soil, makes the Nile farm the richest ground in 

 the world, needing no artificial manure. 



To augment the work of the Assuan dam, another dam 450 miles 

 lower down the river at Assuit will be bnilt. This will be simply an 

 "elevating" dam. destined not to store the water, but to deliver it to> 

 the irrigating canals between Assuit and Cairo, 150 miles away, at a 

 higher level. This dam will cost $4,000,000. Its construction will go 

 hand in hand with the construction of the Assuan dam. Mr. White- 

 house sees in the building of this lower dam a plan on the part of the 

 English to steal his reservoir, to which the Egyptian government has 

 always refused him title. The Assuib dam will throw a vast volume 

 of water into Joseph's canal, and as there is no outlet for it, Mr. White- 

 house argues that the English engineers -mean to add to their storage 

 by filling the Wady-Rayan, as his depression is known. In consequence 

 he is arranging to present through the United States government a 

 claim for damages, he having pre-empted the site under the Egyptian 

 land laws. 



The contractors for the Assuan dam, Aird & Co. of London, are to 

 receive no money until the completion of the work, when they will be 

 paid $800,000 for thirty years. Careful calculations place the cost of 

 the work at $10,000,000. Under the plan of yearly payments it will 

 practically "cost the Egyptians nothing, as the crop yields from the re- 

 claimed lands will pay $50,000,OCO land tax annually, while the land 

 tax on the new area will be close to $8,000,000 yearly. Figuring on 

 this basis the Egyptian government will therefore have a net revenue 

 after paying the contractors of more than $7,000,000, or the tax rate 

 will be reduced in proportion. 



All these enormous advantages would be lost indefinitely with the 

 firing of the first gun that heralds war against Englanl by the 

 European powers opposed to her. Left to itself the Egyptian govern- 

 ment would never complete the work or would do it in such a way as 

 to make it another Cairo "barrage." England's position in Egypt is a 

 peculiar one. Her own government does not profess that she has any 

 legal rights there and under pressure she would undoubtedly withdraw 

 to defend the vast territory where she has a legal standing, leaving 

 "Egypt to the Egyptians" and the dams to Father Time. Paul 

 Latzke in Daily News. 



