FLOOD LANDS AND WATER SUPPLY. 



FLOOD LANDS AND WATER SUPPLY. 



A RIVER'S BIRTHRIGHT. 



Famous rivers lessening into shallow brooks. 



SWIFT. 



WHETHER or not the Egyptians, before 

 the time of Herodotus, possessed a 

 great deal more knowledge concerning 

 the management of a river, in times of drought 

 and of flood, than is enjoyed by the average 

 conservator of the present day, it is certain that 

 no record of complaint has come down to us 

 regarding the mismanagement of the Nile ; while 

 a great many accounts and illustrations are 

 extant of the engineering feats planned and 

 carried out hundreds, if not thousands, of years 

 before Christ. 



That the Egyptians had learnt the importance 

 of not interfering with the flood lands of the 

 Nile, but had left to nature the formation of 

 those ' Khors ' mentioned so frequently in the 

 accounts of Kitchener's Khartoum expedition, 

 is beyond all question ; while it appears that 

 this same knowledge has been withheld from 

 those who during the past fifty years have been 

 responsible for the management or conservation 

 of the Thames. 



It had better be stated in the first instance 

 exactly what is meant by ' flood lands.' They 



