Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1897-09-01
JosEPH's CANAL IN EGYPT.
An Engineering WOrk That Is e4in UsefuI After Foar ThOuaand Years.

AfteF Eoar dhouaand Years.
 How many of the engineering works of the nineteenth century
 will there be in existence in the
 year 6O00i Very few, we fear, and
 still less those that wifi continue in
 that farof age to serve useful pur-
 pose. Yet there Is at least one great
 undertaking conceived and executed
 by an engineer which during the
 space of 1000 years has never ceased
 it's office, on which the life of fer
 tile province absolutely depends to-
 day. We refer to the Bahr Joussuf
 the canal of Joseph-built, ac- cording to tradition, by the son of
 Jacob, and which es not
 the least of the many blessings he conferred on Egypt during the years of his prosperous rule.
 This canal took its rise from the Nile at Asiut and ran almost par allel with 1t for nearly 250 miles, creeping along under the western cliffs of the Nile valley, with many Q bend and winding, until at length 1t gained an eminence, as compared with the river bed, which enabled it to turn westward through a nar- row pass and enter e district which was otherwise shut off from the fer tilizing floods on which all vegeta- ton in Egypt depends The north ern end stood 17 feet above low Nile, while at the southern end 1t was at an equal elevation with the river. Through this cut ran a perennial stream, which watered a province named the FayOum, endowing it with fertility and supporting a large population.
 In the time of the annual flood a great part of the canal was under water, and then the river's current would rush in a more direct course into the pass, carrying with 1t the rich silt which takes the place of manure and keeps the soil in a con- stant state of productiveness. All this. with the exception of the tra- dition that Joseph built it, can be verified today, and it is not mere suppositiOn or rumor.
 Until eight years ago it was firm ly believed that the design has al- ways been limited to an irrigation scheme, larger, no doubt. than that l now in operation, us shown by tbe | traces of abandoned canals and by 1 the slow aggregation of waste water which had accumulated in the Bir ket el Quorum, but still essentially 1 the same in character. Many ac- counts have been written by Greek and Roman historians, such as He rOdotus, Strabo, Mutianus and Pliny, ! and repeated in monkish legends or portrayed in tho maps of the mid. dle ages, which agreed with the folk lore of the district These tales ex. plained that the canal dug by tho ancient Israelites served to carry the surplus waters of the Nile into an extensive lake lying south of the Fayoum and so large that 1t not only modified the climate, tempering the arid winds of the desert ana converting them into the balmy airs which nourished the vines and the olives into a fullness and fragrance in any part of the coun- try, but also added to the food sup ply of the land such immense quan- titles of fish that the royal prerOga- tive of the right of piscary at the great weir was valued at 9250, 900 This lake was said to be 45O miles round and to be navigated by a fleet of vessels, and the whole was the scene of in- dustry and prosperity. Engineer ing.