THE GREAT NILE DAM. 



STUPENDOUS WORK OF THE EGYPTIAN GOV- 

 ERNMENT. 



The English began in 1883 their planning for the storage of the 

 Nile waters that now run to waste during flood periods, but it was 

 not until last year that work was actually started on the great Nile 

 dam, which will reclaim over a million and a half acres A thousand 

 million gallons of water will be held in storage behind this, the great- 

 est dam in the world, says Mr. Paul Latzke in an interesting letter. 

 Fifteen thousand workmen are now engaged upon the great structure 

 and its completion is guaranteed by July 1, 1903. The contractors 

 are to receive no money until the completion of the work when they 

 will be paid $800,000 a year for thirty years. Under this method of 

 annual payments, the dam will actually cost the Egyptian govern- 

 ment nothing, as the land tax on the new area reclaimed will be, it is 

 thought, about $8,000,000 yearly. The government is practically 

 building this storage reservoir, and while it is responsible for a cer- 

 tain payment annually, yet by reason of the building of the reservoir, 

 it not only reimburses itself but acquires a handsome revenue addi- 

 tional. 



The Minneapolis Tribune recently published the following letter 

 from Egypt, in relation to this gigantic engineering problem: 



"England is achieving the mightiest engineering feat of its sort 

 ever attempted, in the damming of the Nile. 



"There are two ways of regarding this stupendous phenomenon. 

 First there is the British way. The Nile, harnessed and made docile, 

 will insure thousands of British subjects against famine, swell enor- 

 mously Egypt's produce and put gold in Britain's coffers. The minds 

 of the 'unprogressive' natives, made to toil for England's gain, will 

 be fired to a quicker intelligence by contact with the science of mod- 

 ern engineering. And a monument to British skill will be set up 

 where it will rival the pyramids in wonder. 



"Indeed the British point to the ancient Egyptian statues bear- 

 ing, as the symbol of sovereignty, the figures of two stalwart men 

 binding the great river with strong ropes and say, 'Behold the 

 prophecy! The strong men who bind the river are Lord Kitchener, 

 general and Lord Cromer, engineer.' For to these two men is due the 

 damming of the Nile. 



"Tradition lovers, on the other hand, are apt to grow sentimental 

 in protesting against what they consider iconoclasm. For the mam- 



