Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1882-09-01
CANALS in LOWER EGYPT.
The Great Aids They Offer to Arabi
In the Present War.
London TIMES.

offers peculiarities which will not be
found, perhaps, in any other region of
the globe. Many low-lying countries
ere liable to be flooded by the sea if
dikes and banks be broken by accident
or design; but in the case of Egypt this
liability exists only for q certain period
of each year, the time and duration of
which can be predicted with absolute
certainty. The rise and fall of the Nile
is as SIRE Is that of the ocean tides,
though the tidal period is not twelve
hours, but year. 1t is only for GER
taiE number of weeks before and after
high Nile that Arab will possess the
power of flooding Lower Egypt by cut
ting the banks Of the river itself or of
some of the main canals. During the
greater part of the year the water is
below the level of the lands, as the fell
aheen know to their cost, the necessa-
ry irrigation having to be performed
by sakiehs, shadoofs and other con-
trivances for raising water to the re-
quired height. Unfortunately, the
period during which the country can
be flooded will include the next few
months. During the past thirty years
the earliest time at which the Nile at
tanned its maximum height was on the
9th of August, 1868, and the latest On
the 20th of October, 1872. A range of
nearly two months is thus exhibited;
but 1t must be remembered that the
level Of high Nile is very nearly con-
slant for some weeks, so that, for all
practical purposes, the variation in
time would be included within much
smaller limits. Taking the average of
fifteen consecutive years, the official
returns OF the Egyptian government
show that the Nile had risen fourteen
fee. above low water mark the first
week in August, and nineteen feet in
the third week, twenty feet in the first
week of September, and twenty-five feet
in the first week in October, and that it
had fallen to nineteen feet again in the
first week of November, and to twelve
in the first week of December. A very
high Nile, such as that of 1874, may
rise no less than twenty-five feet above
low-water level, and the heights of the
several months enumerated above
would be, Of course, correspondingly
increased.
Generally, the level of the lands i'm
mediately adjoining the river may be
taken at about seventeen feet above
lowwater level, while, as the ground
slopes at an inclination of some five
inches mile from the river toward the
desert, the complete flooding of the
country may be said to be secured if
the protecting banks be once broken
or suffered to be washed away by the
rapid eroslve current of the high Nile.
A cross section of the country, such
as the one taken by the Egyptian staff
IN 1874, from east to west on line
twelve miles north OF the pyramid,
shows this very clearly. The high Nile
of 1874 stood at this point sixty-six
feet above the level of The Mediter-
ranean; the level of the ground at the
river is, however, only fifty-eight feet
above the same datum hence, had the
banks given way q stream of water
eight feet deep would have flowed lit
orally from the liver over the lands.
Nor is this all, for as already remark
ed, the ground slopes down from the
river inland Ia the present case the
land near the desert on the left bank
of the Nile Is but fifty-one feet above
the Mediterranean, and On the right
bank only forty-one feet.
Not merely the river, but the in
Vulnerable canals, constituting n net
work of waterways over the whole
country, offer facilities for mischiev-
Gus flooding of the country, The
section above referred to cuts in its
course no less than fifteen canals, in
Guiding the Bassaousieh, the Cnark-
ieh anu the Ismailien, or "Sweet Water"
Canal, the best known of all on account
of its vital Importance to the Suez
Canal To retain the water in these
canals high banks have been construct
ed, as an instance of the Nile itself.
The ground where the line of section
crosses the Ismalieh canal, for ex-
ample is but tifty-two feet above the
level Of the Mediterranean, while OBJ
viously, by closing the lower outlet
sluices or by making and earthwork
dam ocross the canal the water might
be made TO rise to the height of the
water in the adjacent Nile, which, as al
ready stated, stood in 1874 10 less than
sixty-six feet above the Mediterranean.
A head of fourteen feet of water would
thus be available to flood the lands in
this district. Some two miles north of
the line of cross section above referred
to is the apex of the Delta, where the
Grand Barrage of the Nile and the
head-worzs of three most important
canals irrigating the Delta are situated
The canal ON the west side, traversing
the Province of Behera, is of high in
terest at the present moment, as it is a
feeder of the Mahmoudien Canal, which
supplies Alexandria with its water. The
Behera Canal has mean width at its
head-works of one hundred ane eighty
feet and depth of from twenty feet to
twenty-six feet at high Nile. If the
food stream of the Nile were allowed to
enter the canal uncontrolled the tor
rent would rush down and devastate the
lands below. Even with depth of ten
feet of water in the canal the discharge
has been found by measurement to be
no less than one hundred and twelve
tons per second, or one third of that of
the whole summer flow of the Nile itself
With double that depth the velocity
and momentum of the rushing waters
would he enormous and the con-
sequences could hardly fail to be felt
at Alexandria itself, though $50 miles
distant. The Behera canal is compar-
atIveiy modern work, proposed by Me-
hemet Ali and constructed under the
superintendent of French engineers.
At a point near the village of Benz
Salameh, on the left bank of the
Rosetta branch of the Nile and about
twenty-five miles distant from its in
take, near the apex of the delta, the
Behera joins the more ancient Khat-
atbeh, canal. The khatatbGh again
Joins the Mahmoudieh canal about
sixty-seven miles further on, and as
tue length of the Mahmoudieh from
the junction with the khatatbeh, near
Domauhour, to Alexandria is about
thirty-eignt miles, the total length of
this line of waterway from the Grand
Barrage of the Nile. at the head of the
delta, to Alexandria is about one hun
dred and thirty miles. The Mahmou-
dieh has direct communication with
the Nile at Afteh, about nine miles
east of the junction with the Khatatbeh
and at this point pumping engines on
large scale have been supplied to
feed the canal at low Nile.
At high Nile the level of water at the
head works of the canal averages
about SO feet above the level of the
Mediterranean, while the level of the
lands at the same point is about 81 feet
above the same. AT khatabeth the