THE IRRIGA TION AGE. 157 



moth engineering scheme has doomed, first of all, Philae, the loveliest 

 spot in Egypt. 



"Philae is an island and must be sunk beneath the flood. The 

 river will overflow the Temple of Iris, swamp the Temple of Hathor, 

 the Roman arch built in Diocletian's time and the rock of Konosso, 

 bearing its sculptured stories carved 4,000 years ago. 



"Palm groves and broad plateaus have had to give way to rail- 

 roads, mounds of masonry, engineering apparatus and half-demolished 

 rocks. The quiet of the land of the lotus eaters is destroyed by the 

 shrieks of engines and the lotus-eaters' descendants are forced to toil 

 for the British six days in the week and give up the seventh to the 

 British Sabbath. 



"But the English engineers insist that their work is one of the 

 greatest of modern marvels. Great dams are being built at two spots, 

 on the Nile Assiout and Assouan. Ancient canals are being re- 

 stored, ancient sluices rebuilt. Water that now runs waste into the 

 Mediterranean will be guarded in the reservoirs until the surrounding 

 land shall enjoy a fertility it has not known in 2,000 years- 



"The water supply of thirsty .Egypt will be more than doubled in 

 volume, millions of unused acres will be given over to cultivation, 

 and in a few years the British public will begin to see the return of 

 the bread it so lavishly cast in the waters of the Nile. 



"It was only last spring that more than 50,000,000 was advanced 

 at three hours' notice, and without security, to the contractors having 

 this great work in hand. 



"The largest reservoir is near Assouan. There is a tremendous 

 cataract here which the British are busily engaged in subduing. 

 This done they will fill up and divert the torrent and crown their ef- 

 forts with a granite viaduct 70 feet high on an average, but in some 

 places double that elevation. 



"Along the top will be a broad roadway. All this is not being 

 accomplished without a deal of commotion, and the sounds of locomo- 

 tives, steam cranes, smiths' forges and nitro-glycerine explosions con- 

 tinue uninterrupted. Seven thousand men are employed and the 

 work is carried on night and day. When the moon is hidden its place 

 is taken by electric Ught. The granite wall will, it is believed, be 

 high enough when completed to be safe above the fiercest Nile flood. 



"Two hundred miles down the river is the subsidiary reservoir, 

 at Assiout, where 11,000 men are employed. This work is only one- 

 fourth done, yet considerably more than si, 000, 000 has been spent. 

 The dam will hold up more than ten feet of water, the river here being 

 more than a half mile wide. There will be 111 arches or openings, 

 each 15 feet wide, all provided with sluices open below, to allow the 

 muddy Nile water free vent, for water stored up motionless loses its 

 fertilizing properties. There will be a navigable caual, with gates, 



