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The fame of the ancient Lake Moeris had made a profound impres- 
sion on the mind of Mehemet Aly, and he urged on his chief engineer 
the necessity of undertaking similar works. Linant Pasha first set 
himself to discover the site of the ancient lake, and then estimated 
roughly the cost of reconstructing it, but considered the cost prohibitive. 
He recommended Silsila as a suitable site for a weir and a canal head. 
The failure of the Barrage discouraged the Government from 
undertaking new works and the question dropped. In 1880 Count 
de la Motte proposed a dam at Silsila and a reservoir to the south of 
it. He also proposed putting a capacious depression to the east of 
Kalabsha in communication with the Nile by the aid of a dam at 
Kalabsha. 
About two years later Mr. Cope Wbitehouse suggested utilising the 
the Wadi Ray an depression as a reservoir. This depression had been 
already mentioned by Linant Pasha in his book and located by him 
on his hydrological map. Financial difficulties prevented Sir Colin Scott- 
Moncrieff from immediately considering the question of reservoirs. 
The success of the Barrage repairs in 1887 however gave new life to 
the question of reservoirs and Sir Colin Scott- M oner ieff deputed Col. 
Western to give scope to the suggestion made by Mr. Cope Wbitehouse, 
to make plans of the Wady Rayan and the deserts between it and the 
Nile, to find out the capacity of the reservoir, and see if it could be 
utilised. Col. Western’s report, plans and estimates were printed by 
the Egyptian Government in 1888. At the same time I was deputed to 
examine the other projects of Count de la Motte. In 1889 and 1891 I 
reported unfavourably on them, because I could find no depression near 
Kalabsha to put in communication with the Nile, and could find no 
rock at Silsila on which to build a dam. The Bergat Takham pan was 
the only depression near Kalabsha which could have been used as a 
reservoir and it was over 100 metres above the level of the Nile flood; 
while both in the Silsila pass and the Silsila gate I bored for rock 
and was everywhere still in sand 10 metres below the level at 
which the existence of rock was assumed by the Count’s engineers. 
On my report reaching Cairo, M. Prompt proposed using the 
trough of the Nile itself at Kalabsha as a reservoir in place of the de- 
pression which did not exist. Col. Western left the country in 1890 
and I became Director General of Reservoir Studies. M. Prompt had 
supposed that rock could be met with at Kalabsha at a depth of 4 metres 
below low -water level. I could not find it at a depth of 26 metres. 
