The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1896-05-23
THIRST THREATENS EGYPT.

III Tie nOIlOW 0 ulS ndnu. III he
chooses to do so, he can very easily
take a step that will create a water
famine throughout Egypt, Involving an
incalcuiahle destruction of property
and the incidental loss of perhaps half
a million lives. All he has to do is to
dam the sources of the Nile, and there
will be reproduced the great plague.
described in the book Of Exodus. dur
Ing which the reaches OF the river De-
came stagnant pools, swarming With
dying fish, so that the Nile stank and
the people were forced to dig wells and
drink the water that soaked into them
from the salt-impregnated soil of the
delta.
Less than 1000 years ago another
such failure of the river proved a terri
Bile disaster to Egypt. What happened
then has been described by an eye
witness-the famous Aid El I.atif. lie
states that the uc0nle wei. reduced to
such eXtremitieS that human flesh was
for some time an important item of the
food supply. The women of Cairo actu-
ally gave UP their infants to be butch
cred for meat.
BY employing the forces of a single
regiment, Ras Menelik could do this
enormous mischief in one day. The
task would be accomplished by telling
trees and rolling stones, so as to make
q barrier across the gorge by Which
the waters of Lake Tsoa escape. This
mighty sheet, about eight times as big
as Lake Geneva, in Switzerland, is one
of the most important sources of the
water supply of the Nile. 1t has a sur
face of 2.40O square miles and is stud
ded with numerous islands. Through
a narrow channel it discharges into
the Blue Nile 100000 cubic meters
of water daily.
KhartOum is situated at the junction
of the White Nile and the Blue Nile.
Thus, the water that flows by the city
is derived from two sources. But the
people drink only the water Of the Blue
Nile, because that of the White Nile is
so charged with decayed organic mat
ter and deadly microbes as to be dead
ly for human consumption. 1t is. in
fact, merely the drainage Of malarial
swalnps. The White Nile obtains q
small part of the water from the melt
ing of the snow on the peaks OF RuWen-
zori-those Mountains of the Moon de-
fined in ancient Ptolemaic charts and
only restored to modern maps by Stan
ley. The bulk of it's supply, however,
is the oozing of a gigantic sponge
formed over a vast plateau by innu-
merable streams and morasses. Ihls
plateau is somewhat like that of Min
nesota, with it's countless lakes con-
triEuting to the current Of the Missis-
sippi. By throwing up a bank not
more than a foot high across Il OF
the marshes of the White Nile, the
Abysinnian king could hold back an
amount of water equal to the whole
quantity now utilized for irrigating the
Nile delta.
Even the defeated Mahadists are
in a position to hold Egypt at ransom
at any time by threatening to cut on
Ler wafer supply. The situation is
certainly remarkable, but it is likely to
be altered before long by the carrying
out of an engineering project now I'M
der consideration. The plan is the
idea of an American named Cope
Whitcholse. He has discovered that a
great natural depression exists to the
west of the Nile valley and about sew
enty miles southwest OF Cairo. This
depression, which is 100 feet below the
level of the Mediterranean, might be
utilized as n reservoir for holding a
supply of water during the season Of
low Nile.
The depression referred to is known
as the Wadi Raiyan. Mr.. Whitehouse
cannot DO said to nave discovered the
wadi, but he was the first to ascertain
the fact that it was below the level of
the sea. He was led to the discovery
by a clew quite extraordinary, which
was nothing more nor less than Il map
preserved in a monastery on Mount
AthO, and believed to have been draft
ed by monks during the Middle Ages.
The map itself was a puzzle more diff
cult of solution than the famous cipher
given by the Able Faria to Monte
Christie, but certain things set down
upon it led Mr.. WlitehOuse to the con
clusion that the Wadi Raiyan had been
the location of an ancient reservoir for
holding the surplus waters of the Nile.
The casual observer, who knows no
more of Egyptian history than is to be
found in the "Anthony and Cleopatra"
of Shakespeare, must be struck with
the enormous difference between that
wealth which lavished gold on coffin
lids and the miserable Egypt of to-day,
whose peasants during five months Of
the year earn an average wage of little
less than 2 cents a day. The ancient
source of wealth, according to the
Bible story of Joseph and the descrip-
lions Of Greek historians, lay in a res
ervoir situated in a depression to the
west Of the Nile valley. This depres-
sion, now satisfactorily identified with
the Wadi Raiyan, seems to have been
put there for this very purpose, being
at a convenient distance behind the
neck of the delta, where always must
be the chief city of Egypt.
AS has been stated, the depression
is 135 feet below the surface level of
the Mediterranean. 1t is 225 feet be-
low the level Of high Nile. According
ly, it is merely necessary to connect it
by q canal with the Nile river in or
der to flood it with water. In this nat
ural reservoir can be kept a supply of
water sufficient to render Egypt safe
from water famine during the season
of low Nile. Did such an arrange
ment already exist, the country would
not now be at the mercy Of a horde
of %barbarians, who have it in their
power to destroy crops worth $SO,OOO,-
GOO in a single season and to wipe out
hundreds Of thousands of the inhab-
itants. The canal would be only ten
miles long and would cost less than
100000 1t would involve no en-
cheering difficulties, and there could
be no uncertainty as to results.
The reservoir thus established could