TEANSACTIONS OF SECTION G. 661 



Napoleon the Great said that every drop of Nile water should be thrown on the 

 land, and he was right so far as Low Nile discharge is concerned. The cultivated 

 lands in the provinces of Lower Egypt have an area of 3 million acres, and to 

 irrigate this eHectually at least 30 millions of tons of water per day would be 

 required, an amount somewhat exceeding the whole of the Low Nile discharge. 

 At present the irrigation canals are totally inadequate to convey this quantity, and 

 imperfect irrigation and consequent loss of crops is the result. In many instances 

 a couple of men labour for a hundred days in watering by shadoof a single acre of 

 ground, all which amount of labour might be dispensed with if the barrage of the 

 Nile were completed, and a few other works carried out, the whole of which would 

 be paid for handsomely by a water rate of two shilhngs an acre. You will gather, 

 therefore, that I do not think the resources of Egypt have yet been fully developed, 

 niagniticent as they even now are, having reference to the size of the country. 



It is hardly necessary to say that a network of canals laid out with a view to 

 irrigating the lands of Lower Egypt can also be used at any time in the event of 

 war for the oH'ensive or defensive flooding of the whole or any part of the said 

 lands. Except for the work of man, Lower Egypt for four mouths in the year 

 would be simply the bed of a river, and for the remaining months a mud bank. 

 Long before the historic period, however, the Nile had been embanked and canals, 

 such as the Bahr-Jusef, had been formed ; the first, to keep the Hoods off the land, 

 except in desired quantities ; and the second, to run off' the inundation waters as 

 soon as the fertilising matters in suspension had been deposited on the lauds. 

 Should the inhabitants of Egypt neglect at any time to maintain the works of their 

 ancestors, successive floods would quickly destroy the embankments and wash the 

 light material into the canals. Thus the whole surface of the country would again 

 be levelled, and the land of Egypt would revert to its primitive condition of being 

 a river's bed for one-third of the year, and probably a malarious swamp for the 

 remainder. 



It is hardly possible to I'efer to Egypt without saying a few words about the 

 Suez Canal. Far-seeing people, including the late Khedive, have long been of the 

 opinion that another ship canal will be required in Egypt. In 1876 I submitted to 

 His Highness, in accordance with my instructions, detailed plans and estimates for 

 such a canal from Alexandria through Cairo to Suez. The total length of the 

 canal was 240 miles, and with the same width as the existing Suez Canal the 

 estimated quantity of excavation Was 160 million cube yards. 



An interesting and signiticant incident in the history of the Suez Canal occurred 

 in May 1878, when a fleet consisting of ten steamers and sixteen sailing vessels 

 passed through with 8,412 native troops bound from India to Cyprus. During the 

 same year no less than 58,274 soldiers traversed the Canal. Since 1878 events have 

 marched rapidly, forno one then foresaw that the next important movement of British 

 troops canal-ways would be of a nature hostile in appearance, if not in fact, to the 

 inhabitants of Egj^pt. The announcement that French and not British troops 

 were to hold the canal was received by the public with an expression of surprise 

 and perhaps of slight resentment, because no one can dispute the vital importance 

 of the work to this country. Periodically the question of the Euphrates Valley 

 Railway is revived, and indeed quite recently I have had to reconsider the question 

 professionally, but this route can never rival the existing one by the Isthmus of 

 Suez. 



The inauguration of steam navigation to India wasmuch delayed bythe vacillation 

 of the authorities respecting the Suez and the Euphrates Valley routes. Happily, 

 however, the Arabs stole the first bag of mails that went by the Euphrates, and so 

 in 1834 a Committee of the House of Commons finally resolved that 'steam naviga- 

 tion between Bombay and Suez having in five successive seasons been brought to 

 the test of experiment, and the practicability of that line being established, it be 

 recommended to His iVIajesty's Government to extend the line of Malta packets to 

 Egypt, to complete the commimication between England and India.' Nothing 

 appears to have been done during the next two years, but in 1837 a new paddle- 

 wheel steamer, the Atlanta, of 650 tons, steamed out to Calcutta round the (Jape in 

 ninety-one days and was put on the Red Sea station. She left Bombay with the 



