enumerated above, by supplying in summer a larger volume of water at a higher level in the canals, so that not only can more land be irrigated, but that labor in lifting water will be saved. When the International Commission, eight years ago, recommended the construction of a large reservoir somewhere in the Nile valley, I was desirous of knowing what would be the opinion of a real old-fashioned native landowner on the subject; and was introduced to one whose qualifications were considered to be of no mean order, as he was a descendant of the Prophet, very rich, and had been twice warned by the government that he would probably be hanged if any more bodies of servants he had quarrelled with were found floating in the Nile. He was a very stout old man, and, between paroxysms of bronchial coughing, he assured me that there could be nothing in the project of a Nile reservoir, or it would have been done at least 4,000 years ago. In contrast with this I may mention that, a few months ago, the most modern and enlightened of all the rulers of Egypt, the present Khedive, when visiting the dam, said he was proud that the great work was being carried out during his reign, and that the good services rendered by his British engineers was evidenced by the London County Council coming to his Public Works Staff for their chief engineer.
The old system of irrigation, which the descendant of the Prophet looked back upon with regret, was little more than a high Nile flooding of different areas of land or basins surrounded by embankments. Less than a hundred years ago, perennial irrigation was first attempted to be introduced, by cutting deep canals to convey the water to the lands when the Nile was at its low summer level. When the Nile rose, these canals had to be blocked by temporary earthen dams, or the current would have wrought destruction. As a result, they silted up, and had to be cleared of many millions of tons of mud each year by enforced labor, much misery and extortion resulting therefrom. About half a century ago, the first serious attempt to improve matters was made by the construction of the celebrated barrage at the apex of the Delta. This work consists, in effect, of two brick arched viaducts crossing the Rosetta and Damietta branches of the Nile, having together 132 arches of 16 feet 4 inches span, which were entirely closed by iron sluices during the summer months, thus heading up the water some 15 feet, and 'throwing it at a high level into the main irrigation canals below Cairo. The latter are six in number, the largest being the central canal at the apex of the Delta, which, even in the exceptionally dry time of June, 1900, was carrying a volume of water one-fourth greater than the Thames in mean flood, whilst the two canals right and left of the two branches of the river carried together one half more than the Thames, and the Ismailieh Canal, running down to the Suez Canal, though starved in supply, was still a river twice the size of the Thames at the same time of the year. At flood times the discharges of all the canals
