The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-08-28

Voir, or lake, that 1t will create. This
is, of course, a minor benefit that will
result from the enterprise; but it will
probably strike a death blow at the
picturesque dohabeah, with its long
curving yards, and turbaned Arab sail
ors. The tourist of the future will
come or go the length Of the Nile. much
as he would ravel on an American
river, and there will be another quar-
ter of the globe. where space and time
Will be, If not entirely abolished, at
least greatly reduced. Egypt has been
called the gift of the Nile. The limits
of its flooding waters are the limits of
fertility. Ninety miles from the sea
the river divides itself into three sep
arate channels. named the Canobic. the
Sebennytic, and the Pelusiae. They en-
close a wonderfully productive region.
called the Delta. Cairo is at the head
of the Delta. The average width of the
Nile valley between Cairo n the first
cataract, where the dam is to be built,
is in the neighborhood of 10 miles. The
land in this valley is of the richest pos
sible description, due entirely to the
yearly floods. or else to irrigation. The
floods begin in June and continue up
to December. The fields that border
the river are divided by narrow bitches
into squares of great or lesser extent.
AT intervals of every few hundred
yards, and sometimes closer, along the
bank, rises the tall pole of a ~shadoof,
as 1t is called. The shadoof is the wa
tering machine or primitive irrigation
plant of the native. which enables him
To complete what the floods have left
undOne. The method of its operation
Is quite simple. One half naked fellah
at the waters edge fills the leathern
bucket, attached to the pole from the
river, while another fellah at the top
of the bank swings it up TO his level
and empties il into the ditch that ir-
rigates the fields. This device is re-
stricted to the Lower Nile. Up above
Assouan, and beyond the first cataract.
this work is done by a wheel on whose
revolving spokes are fastened numer-
Gus earthen jars. which fiji themselves
in the river, and slowly turn around
with the wheel until they empty their
contents into the reservoir, generally a
small affair Of wood. which feeds the
irrigation bitches. These wheels are
turned by oxen. and they are kept 90
ing day and night. 70 draw the neces-
sary supply of water. The dam at As
sOuan and the supplementary dams
and barrages viii do away with much
Of this heavy INC improbable labor.
and give to Egypt a system Of irriga-
ton not widely different from that EN-
ployed in our own Western states. The
available supply OF water tina will be
furnished by the dams is estimated a.
S,blO.0O0,Og0 cubic Centimeters. which
will have a flow of $50 meters per sec
ond over the district actually put un-
der ditch.
At Assouan are the famous quarries
that have furnished building material
for many Of Egypt's most noted tenn
pies, and the very blocks Of granite
that are to be used i'm the nineteenth
century marvel were dug from the hill
side thousands Of years ago, and have
lain there ever since. just as the Egyp-
tan stone cutter left them.
II was his same quarry that sup
Piled the stone for the temples on the