— Sl- 
it cuts through many kilometres of this very salted marl. The sides 
are absolutely vertical and deposits of mud and self-sown tamarisk 
bushes protect the vertical sides at places where the running water is 
nearly touching the marl. Such natural protection will be far superior 
to the masonry lining I proposed and far more effective. It will more- 
over cost nothing. 
To those critics who suggest that the waters of the lake might 
become salted or leak into the Fayoum I have to reply as follows : 
When the old Lake Mauds, or the present Fayoum, was full of water 
and 63 metres higher than the bottom of the Wady It ay an, and re- 
mained so for thousands of years, there was no question of the waters 
having become salted or having escaped into the Wady. The Wady 
was as dry as it is to-day and the great inland sea was always fresh. If 
there had been any serious infiltration from the ancient Lake Moeris 
into the Wady Rayan, there would have resulted a lake which could not 
have escaped the notice of the numerous travellers who visited the lake. 
No mention was ever made of such a lake. This body of water 
moreover would have been inhabited by fresh-water animals whose 
remains would have strewn its shores. No such remains are to be 
seen to-day. If therefore the ancient Lake Moeris with a head of 63 
metres on to the Wady Ray an could not leak into the Wady, it is not 
likely that the Wady Ray an reservoir with a head of from 27 to 29 
metres on the Garak side of the Fayoum will leak into that part of the 
area covered by the ancient lake. Any leakage into the Lake Kurun side 
is never contemplated by anybody, since many kilometres of compact 
limestone lie between the Wady Rayan and it, while about one or two 
kilometres of the same limestone lie between the Wady Rayan and the 
Garak depression. 
34. Lake Albert reservoir project and project for training 
the Albert Nile and the Zeraf River. — If we wish not only to 
irrigate the whole of Egypt, but to include the Sudan in the sphere of: 
operations we must regulate the supply issuing from Lake Albert 
Nyanza and ensure its passage through the great swamp regions. To 
my mind no work in the Sudd regions will be of any substantial value 
unless the Albert reservoir dam is first built. Tabulating the informa- 
tion collected in the gauges and discharge tables we may state that the 
discharge of the Albert Nile in cubic metres per second between the 
15th January and 15th May was as follows in : — 
1901 1902 1903 1904k 
Discharge at Gondokoro 600 600 700 1000 
Discharge above Sobat mouth ... ... 300 300 350 435 
6 
