February 28, 1918] 



NATURE 



505 



THE PREFECT OF THE NILE.^ 



THE name of Sir Colin Scott-Moncrieff is in- 

 separably associated with irrigation, and pre- 

 eminently with Egyptian irrigation^ — not in the 

 -ense, perhaps, of an initiator or pioneer, but as 

 ne who found a >great undertaking in a state of 

 .Imost hopeless ruin and decay, and by dint of 

 indefatigable exertions and unremitting toil re- 

 stored it to a position of efficiency and importance 

 far exceeding anything in its previous history. Sir 

 Colin did not himself design or build the great 

 barrage at the head of the Nile Delta, which, for 

 more than a generation prior to the erection of 

 the more renowned structure at Assuan, furnished 

 Egypt with fertile inundations, rich in potential 



the labours of his predecessor, but, urging the 

 merit of tha latter 's services, he secured for him 

 a welcome pension. 



Yet, despite the absence of originality, the work 

 actually carried out by Sir Colin was scarcely less 

 important than the execution of the primary 

 design. He found the barrage had been so 

 neglected that the whole fabric was decrepit, the 

 masonry being cracked by unequal settlement, the 

 timber rotten, and the ironwork a mass of rust. 

 Pressed on all sides to abandon as hopeless any 

 idea of its restoration, he refused to be deterred, 

 and, aided by certain engineers of the Indian Public 

 Works Department — Major Jiistin Ross, Major 

 (now Sir R.) Hanbury Brown, Mr. (now Sir) \^\ 

 Willcocks, and Mr. E. P. Foster — he had the 



branch. From "The Life of Sir Colin C. Scott-Moncrieflf." 



crops of corn and cotton and sugar : this was the 

 achievement of an accomplished French engineer, 

 Mougel Bey, who towards the close of his life un- 

 fortunately sank into poverty and obscurity. It is 

 narrated in the biography before us that Sir Colin 

 took. a keen delighf in hunting up the old man to 

 acquaint him with the fact that his magnum opus 

 had been successfully repaired and was holding 

 up 10 ft. of water. 



" Ten feet ! " Mougel repeated several times, deeply 

 moved, and then cried out : " I knew that my design 

 was sound. I knew it would be justified in the end." 



It is thoroughly characteristic of Sir Colin that 

 he not only refrained from the least depreciation of 



1 " The Life of Sir Colin C. Srott-Moncrieff.' Edited by his Niece, Mary 

 Albright Rollings. Pp. xii-f374. (London: John Murray, 1917.) Price 

 i2f. net. 



NO. 



2522, VOL. 100] 



piers underpinned and the superstructure renewed 

 until, as stated above, a serviceable degree of 

 staunchness was obtained and the water once more 

 began to fill the distributary canals. '* My Nile is 

 behaving itself," he wrote proudly to his sister, 

 Mrs. Robertson, in September, 1885. 



The service rendered to Egypt, and especially 

 to Egyptian agriculture and commerce, can 

 scarcely be overrated. From a state of acute de- 

 pression and chronic lethargy, cultivation steadily 

 increased in extent and importance, until, before he 

 quitted his post, Sir Colin had the satisfaction of 

 seeing his expectations realised and the country 

 once more set on the way towards a prosperity 

 which it had not experienced for many centuries. 

 The qualities which enabled him to achieve such 

 a result were " a high degree of practical wisdom, 



