THE LANDS OF THE TIGRIS. 



tion, and who were sceptical of the estimated profits 

 of such a venture, may well fight shy of investing 

 capital in Turkey, a country notorious chiefly for its 

 sublime contempt for anything which savours of order 

 or justice. But in Egypt the dam is there, and is in 

 itself a monumental answer to those who doubted. In 

 the case of Mesopotamia it would certainly be necessary 

 for the British Government to exert pressure at the 

 Porte to secure a guarantee for the protection of the 

 interests of those concerned, after first securing a con- 

 cession for such an enterprise. Without a knowledge 

 that the British Government was behind them it would 

 be absurd to expect British capitalists to move in such 

 an undertakino;-. 



No one will be found to-day to deny the beneficial 

 results to Egypt of the monster dam of Assouan, and 

 Sir William Willcocks could hardly have given a more 

 alluring description of the potentialities of Egypt than 

 he has of Chaldsea. " Of all the regions of the earth 

 no region is more favoured by nature for the production 

 of cereals than the lands of the Tigris. . . . Cotton, 

 sugar-cane, Indian corn, and all the summer products 

 of cereals, leguminous plants, Egyptian clover, opium, 

 and tobacco will find themselves at home as they do 

 in Egypt." Perhaps, after all, w^e should not accuse 

 Herodotus of exaggeration when he wrote : " This is of 

 all lands with which we are acquainted by far the best 

 for the growth of corn. ... It is so fruitful in the 

 produce of corn that it yields continually two hundred- 

 fold, and when it produces its best, it yields even three 

 hundred-fold. The blades of wheat and barley grow 

 there to full four fingers in breadth ; and though I w^ell 

 know to what a height millet and sesame grow, I shall 

 not mention it, for I am well assured that, to those who 

 have never been in the Babylonian country, what has 



