The silver lance., 1899-03-03
m HARNESS THE NILE
,,,r1sH GOVERNMENTS PROF.
JECT.
planned to Construct Great Reservoirs
Irrieate Egypt Des rt Lands.

.romendo,s task is TO be undertak-
On by the English in Egypt-nothing
- Than the creation, for purposes of
i.r,oation. of a reservoir having two or
.t,ea times the superficial area of Lake
Ganeva Ex-ConsuI General +. G. Pen
sald describes the proposed undertak-
az in the February Century. in an il
,nstrated article appropriately entitled
aHarnessing the Nile" He says:
engineering skill is to rearrange ma
.,,re's surface on the Egyptian from
tiar and pond back into Nubia body
~ water 14O miles long. crossing the
tropic of Cancer. and extending south
ward nearly to Korosko-a goodly step
on the journey to Abu.Simbei and
Wady- -Halfa-by means of a great dam
across the Nile at Assuan. The Pyra-
mids and the Sphinx have borne testi-
mony through the centuries to the
grandeur and power of execution
which dwelt within the Nile valley;
and what more fitting now than that tha
same valley gbe the theater of a gigan-
tie engineering exploit. audacious per-
hans, but certain of success. and minis
taring to mans necessities. rather than
10 his vanity.
Asa building achievement the scheme
ia on a scale wprthy of Rameses or "A
Pharaoh. To create in the heart of the
African desert a lake having from two
TO three times the superficial area of
Lake Geneva. in Switzerland, and CON
troll il with scientific precision. so that
the impounded flood may be turned into
distant channels at will. is a stipend
Gus undertaking. ! But the engineers
claim that their plans can be carried
out to the letter; they have estimated
the exact cost of the dam. computated
almost to the gallan the volume of wat
er that will be imprisoned, and figured
the necessary resistance TO be provided
at every point of the masonry. In Cal
ro the experts of the ministries of pub
lie works and finance, likewise. have
calculated to a nicely the sum from
taxation that will come into the public
treasury through the country's aug
mented productiveness.
Subordinate to the great dam a
smaller one, not unlike The barrage nj
the apex of the delta, ten miles to the
north of Cairo, is to be made at Asslut.
Its function will be to give sufficient
head to the river to force the water into
the system of irrigation canals that
vein hundreds Of thousands OF acres be
tween Assiut and Cairo. The compile
ton of the Cairo barrage Ut was begun
by Mehemet Ali Pasha. from the plans
of a French engineer, but not made eff
fective until England took the country
in hand) so developed cotton culture as
to add to the public revenue of the
country at least $10,0O0,OOO annually. 1t
may safely be concluded that the As
suan reservoir is but one of a series
which will in time he constructed
southwark to the Victoria Nyanza The
re-esta blishment of the Khedival au-
thority at Khartoum will determine
This. +.
The Egypt of the map shows more
than 100000 square miles. an expansp
nearly seven times as great as New
England: but the practical Egypt-that
which produces crops and sustains life
is barely as large as the states of Yer
mont and Rhode Island taken together
This is the ribbon-like strip of alluvial
land bordering the: Nile, a few miles
wide on each side. and measuring not
more than $500 square miles. The ex-
tension planned. and to be completed
in the next six or eight years. wholly
by irrigation, is no less magnificent in
conception than the rescuing. from the
Libyan and Arabian deserts Of $500
square miles. or twice the area of
Rhode Island. This will be explofta-
ton in its truest sense. and its accom-
plishment will be a. verificatloA Of the
ancient saying that Egypt is the Nile.
and the Nile is Egypt 50