This page has already been transcribed. You can find new pages to transcribe here.

Transcription

[Page 182]

Cairo. The Minister for Public Works in Egypt had instructed the Director of the Barrage to meet us and show us round. We arrived about 2 p.m., Mr du Smith took charge of us and gave us full information as to the amount of water stored, to where & how it is distributed, and with what result. If you look at a map of Egypt you will see that the Nile is a single river to Cairo, that soon after passing the city it divides and devolves by several streames, making the delta, ending on the Mediterranea shore in a whole series of mouths from Damietta to Rosetta. These mouths have not been constant throughout the ages. At the first dividing of the great stream, which has flowed more than 4000 miles from the mountains of Abyssinia, a dam has been built across both, these constitute the barrage. Iron gates are placed in the brick stone and concrete structure which are used to regulate the flow down stream, to back water for a distance, and to fill the canals for distribution in regular sequence, sending to the farmer the quantity that he requires, he lifts it out of the canal with buckets pours it into a drain, and distributes it to the ploughed and planted lands. Before this great work was finished, it is purely modern the growth depended upon the annual inundations and the water which was saved from them, there have adown the ages been canals, but to only a trifling extent as compared with those now radiating in all directions. During the British controll, which has only earnestly started, much more will be put in train for the benefit of the native population. Will these people be able to stand improving? One may

Current Status: 
Completed