A SCHEME FOB IRRIGATION. 77 



affords a fine view of the surrounding country. The 

 whole length of the spiral way is something like 300 

 yards — that is to say, I counted rather over 300 some- 

 what uneven paces from the top to the bottom. 



The interest of the country south of Samara lies in 

 its extraordinary agricultural potentialities. South of 

 a line drawn from Hit on the Euphrates to Samara on 

 the Tigris is a vast extent of magnificent alluvial soil, 

 requiring only water to restore to it its pristine harvests. 

 There are in Upper Chaldaea, according to Sir William 

 Willcocks, — the famous originator of the great Assouan 

 dam on the Nile, — no less than 1,280,000 acres "of 

 first-class land, waiting only for water to yield at once 

 a handsome return." Here, then, is an opening for 

 British enterprise and capital. Here is an opportunity 

 for Great Britain to encourage British capital to develop 

 the resources of Mesopotamia, " as strengthening her 

 political claim to consideration and excluding that of 

 possible antagonists," ^ and to create vested interests 

 which will refuse to be ignored when the day of the 

 break-up of the Ottoman Empire is at hand. Sir 

 William Willcocks gives an idea of the probable cost 

 of a scheme of irrigation and of its results. £8,000,000, 

 he says, should suffice for the irrigation of the 1,280,000 

 acres of Upper Chaldtea — £7, that is, per acre. He 

 values the land roughly at £38,000,000, and, placing 

 the rent at about £3 per acre, shows a return of 

 £3,840,000. Allowing nearly half of this sum for 

 the up-keep of canals, there is still a net return of 

 £2,000,000, or 25 per cent on £8,000,000 of capital. 



It may be urged that £8,000,000 is a large sum to 

 sink in such a country as Asiatic Turkey, and that 

 those who hesitated to risk £5,000,000 in a similar 

 undertaking in Egypt under an excellent administra- 



1 Captain A. T. Mahan. 



