310 WATER STORAGE AND CANALIZATION. 
Nile, they transported on rafts proportioned to their weight huge 
masse columns or obelisks to the positions they were 
required at, the whole country being intersected with numerous 
canals. Without doubt too the Egyptians, Chinese, and 
Indians have from time immemorial raised water both for irriga- 
from the ground, or could have moved the column at the bottom 
deep. Two colossal statues on two pyramids raised their 
300 feet above the lake and in the midst of it, whilst the founda- 
tions of these monuments were fixed on the base of the reservows 
300 feet below the water-level. Modern travellers have pres 
ably reduced the circumference and depth of this lake, making 
When the inundation rose over 24 feet, and was likely to be 
disastrous crops, the sluices were opened and the flood we! 
Sieur ians were so dependent on the nung?" og 
the Nile for their welfare, even for their very ‘means of livelinons 
