800 EEPOKT— 1887. 



capable of being reclaimed is reported by Mr. "William Willcocks to be over 

 600,000 acres. Ten shillings an acre is tbe tax paid by inferior land in Egypt. If 

 the summer supply in the Nile were sufficient for the irrigation of all the land, 

 2,530,000 acres could be reclaimed. The Egyptian Government requested the 

 author in December 1886 to carry outfurther surveys and detailed engineers to 

 work under his direction. A line of levels was run from Mazurah on the Canal of 

 Joseph (Bahr Jusuf), 26 kilometres to the west. At the tenth kilometre 

 the desert is 54 metres above the Nile valley ; at the fifteenth, 154 metres ; 

 at the twenty-fourth, 131 metres, and at the twenty-sixth the Wadi Mu6lah is 

 about 2 metres below high Nile at Beni-Suef (photographs shown). This line was 

 continued to the N.W. into the Wadi Raian, down to the level of the sea. It 

 was checked by a line to the S.E. and E. back to the Bahr Jusuf. A third line 

 of levels was run between the Gharaq and the Raian basins, which showed that 

 at the level of high Nile (ca. 30 metres) these two basins are connected by a 

 narrow defile. Another, and fourth, independent line of levels was carried from 

 the west end of the Birket el-Qerun, whose surface level had been previously 

 established as — 40 metres, or 70 metres (ca. 225 feet) below high Nile, Major 

 Surtees, detailed by the War Office, at the request of Sir C. Scott-Moncrieff", to 

 accompany the author, draughted a map with contours which give the follow- 

 ing data for so much of the depression as is below the Nile and available as a 

 storage reservoir. Surface at + 30 metres (above sea), 1,100 million square metres : 

 average depth, nearly 30 metres ; contents, 31,000 million cubic metres. Major 

 AVestern, R.E., Director-General of Works, having been directed to examine the 

 whole project, prepared an elaborate and most valuable report, showing that a 

 further supply of 25 million cubic metres per diem for 100 days would meet all the 

 requirements of Lower Egj'pt. This could be effected by filling the Raian basin 

 at the time of high Nile, closing the canal of supply until the end of January, 

 when the difference between the water in the reservoir and the river (about 5 

 metres) would permit a sufficient amount to flow back by the same canal. Al 

 objections, such as evaporation, leakage, deposit, infiltration, impregnation, loss ol 

 head were considered, and shown to be of no serious importance. The project i 

 pronounced by the highest authority in all respects feasible. It is estimated tha* 

 less than 1,000,000/. would sufiice for the works, which would consist of a cana' 

 across the Nile valley near Feshn, the improvement of the Bahr Jusuf, an embank- 

 ment and basins in the Nile valley, a cut or tunnel of less than three miles between 

 the Nile valley and the Gharaq basin, an embankment of twenty miles to guide 

 the water into the Raian basin, with incidental expen.ses for gates, bridges, &c. 

 It is estimated that the revenue would amount to about two millions sterling, and 

 the cost of maintenance would be inconsiderable. These researches, therefore, 

 represent a capital value of, say, 60,000,000/., and are believed to be unique if regard 

 is had to the historical, archaeological, and geographical results as well as to the 

 purely practical question of the relief which would be afforded by an addition of 

 more than one-third to the available resources of Egypt. 



2. The Feaslhilify of the Uaian Reservoir. By Colonel Aedagh, 

 B.Ii., C.B. 



Having maintained a constant interest in the investigations of Mr. Cope White- 

 house, and having accompanied him into the Raian Basin, the author offers 

 the testimony of an impartial observer. Mr. Cope Whitehouse merits the thanks 

 alike of antiquarians as of modern engineers for his researches relative to Lake 

 Moeris. He has discovered a basin or depression, which is undeniably capable of 

 being turned into a storage reservoir, fulfilling all the purposes of the ancient Lake 

 Moeris at a comparatively moderate cost, and has shown that the financial result to 

 Egypt of the construction of such a storage reservoir, capable of supplementing 

 the insuflicient quantity of water furnished by the Nile during the period of low 

 Nile, and of thus enabling larger tracts of land to be kept in cultivation, would 

 represent a very large profit on the capital invested, and a permanent increase in 

 the produce of the country. 



