ENGLISH ENGINEERING IN EGYPT. T HE reproaches levelled by Burke against
English rule in India cannot fairly be applied to Egypt. Burke declared that, were we turned out of Asia on the morrow of his harangue, we should have left nothing more to testify to our occupation than would the tiger or the orang-outang. Egypt, however, we have not occupied for more than seven years, and yet already we have left indelible marks of our presence. In spite of foreign jealousy, of financial embarrassment, of internal difficulties, and ex- ternal wars, we have done more in that short space of time to improve the condition of the country and to assist by human ingenuity the beneficial workings of Nature, than has been accomplished since the break-up of the Roman Empire allowed the tides of Asiatic barbarism to beat for thirteen centuries on the land—" the gift of the Nile." Putting aside the moral and social benefits that our rule has conferred upon the people, such as the practical abolition of the coreee, and of the cruelties of a barbarously enforced compulsory military service, we have endowed Egypt with physical improvements which, were we to depart to-morrow, would continue to enrich the cultivators of the soil. An admirable survey of the great public works accomplished by English enterprise in an almost bankrupt State, has lately been published in the New York Nation, and from the facts there stated, we propose to put before our readers what has been done already, and is still doing, by our engineers. The American writer's statement of these achievements is not biassed by national pride, and therefore his cool survey of the work is better worth attention than the possibly over- enthusiastic observations of our fellow-countrymen. An American view of such a subject would doubtless be in- clined, for the honour of the rate, to be sympathetic; but, at any rate, it is the most satisfactory source of informa- tion obtainable. A foreign estimate would be likely to be as unfairly depreciatory as our own to be too highly coloured. In hydraulic engineering there is a strong element of mystery and romance. To control water, that "wild and wandering thing," as our old law-books call it, to force it out of its natural into artificial channels, to impede its restless progress to the sea, to raise it from a lower to a higher level, and to spread it over one piece of ground, and drain it off from the next, always produces an effect of fascination on the human mind. When, too, the work brings the engineer into rivalry with the far-off people of the Pharaohs—awful in their tirelessness and patience—and when "old hushed Egypt and its sands" is the theatre of competition, it is difficult to conceive a subject more attractive at least to those born with a taste for water-works. There is doubt- less a thrill of pleasure in the thought that Englishmen have reconstructed the dam of the great tank in Ceylon on a firmer base than that bestowed upon it by its original builders, and that they have bridged the sacred Ganges and spanned the flood that bore the fleet of Alexander ; but to have learned the very wisdom of the Egyptians, and to have managed to control the Nile more successfully than even the sons of Pharaoh, is a ground for intellectual pleasure of no common land.
The first problem to be dealt with in Egyptian hydraulics is the minimising of the ill-effects of a specially low Nile. If there was no low Nile, and the river could be kept throughout the year at approximately the level of high Nile, the Delta and the hollow lands of Upper Egypt might be a garden in perpetual bloom, in which crop would follow crop with magical succession. Napoleon, with his singular power of grasping in a moment the key to every physical problem be approached—the fine frenzy of true genius—once declared that, were he master of Egypt, not an ounce of the rich slime and mud that now flows out into the sea should be wasted. How to keep up the level of the Nile is, then, the great question proposed for solu- tion. Any one who has ever seen the system by which the naturally narrow and shallow Thames is converted throughout its course into a chain of long thin lakes, would at once reply,—" Build a weir on the Nile, and bay back as much of the water as is required." Un- doubtedly this answer is the correct one ; but to carry out the scheme in practice is anything but simple. It was attempted by the French engineers of Mehemet Ali, and more than a quarter of a century in time and many millions in money were wasted in the fruitless attempt to dam the Nile waters at the point where the stream separates into the Rosetta and Damietta branches. The Barrage, one of the most graceful and beautiful engineering works ever constructed, even by French engineers, stood from 1863, when the attempt to render it efficient was ultimately abandoned till 1885, as a monument of man's failure to control the Nile flood. Its far-stretching series of gates, arches, and battlemented and fortified towers over a thousand yards in length, and its platform 30 ft. above the level of the sea, made an im- posing show ; but for all other purposes it was practically useless. Its foundations had been hastily and carelessly laid, and the whole fabric thus showed signs of weakness, and was only able to support the totally inadequate amount of some three or four feet of water. Where the French engineers had failed, the English, however, were successful. One of the first things determined upon by Colonel Moncrieff on taking over the management of the Irrigation Department, was that the Barrage should be made to do its work. Though unable, for lack of funds, to begin matters on a large scale, he steadily pursued the plan of strengthening and repairing, and year by year succeeded in supporting a higher Nile, and so in allowing the canals that flow through and feed the fields of the Delta, to be kept full for a longer period of time. Having shown that the task was feasible, and having saved Egypt from the usual disasters accompanying two specially low Niles, Colonel Moucrieff obtained a grant of £1,000,000 inorder to enable him to put the Barrage in perfect working order, and to carry out other irrigation schemes of importance. In 1892 it is calculated that the Barrage will be finished, and that it will then support "a maximum level of water, with full canals for the bulk of the country." Already the blessings of a regular and increased water-supply have been felt, and fresh water now goes to remote villages which before were forced to subsist on foul and brackish wells. In Egypt, to gain water means to gain land, or rather, to make good land out of barren. Hence the first result of the raising of the minimum level of the river has been to bring into cultivation a great stretch of country that was before perfectly worthless. In Lower Egypt reclamation has been going on at the rate of 50,000 acres a year, while in the Behera Province the rate has been more like 100,000 acres. In fact, under English rule Egypt is gradually spreading over the desert. long- forgotten channels leading to districts once prosperous, but now arid and barren, are constantly being cleaned out and made use of, and everywhere the fringe of green is advancing on the wastes of sand.
People often imagine that all they see marked "Delta" on the map is rich and serviceable land, and. that every acre included in that expression is capable of producing an almost infinite number of crops. In reality, nearly one-third is barren, and at present valueless for agri- cultural purposes. The shallow lakes and marshes of Mareotis, Burallus, and 3Ienzaleh, near the coast, occupy, too, an immense deal of ground which might easily be reclaimed. A private Company has, indeed, already drained the Lake of Abukir ; and when the process Of washing off the salt efflorescence is completed, 32,000 acres will have been added to the cultivable area of the country. Round the edges of the other salt lakes the same process, though on a smaller scale, is going on, and little by little their areas are shrinking. As another example of the expansion of Egypt, may be noticed the fact that adjoining the inland borders of Mareotis the vine once flourished, and that now that a new canal has been cut to some of the old sites, a fresh attempt at the cultivation of grapes is to be attempted. Throughout the deserts of the Delta, indeed, the adventurous reclaimer has plenty of ancient examples to encourage him. Every- where he sees mounds and ruins of former habitations, which remind him that his task cannot be hopeless, since ages ago those very spots were occupied. For example, when the floor of Aboukir was laid bare from the water, traces of streets, of stone-covered ways, and of fields for tillage, marked out by lines of shells, were everywhere discovered. Again, where once stood the flourishing Hellenic city of Canopus is now desolation ; but doubtless before long the archwologist and the farmer will hand-in- hand convert its ruins to profitable uses.
But if much has been done towards the physical develop- ment of Egypt, much more remains to be accomplished. If the land were not burdened with debts incurred to gratify the vices and follies of the ex-Khedive, Egypt might at once borrow .C50,000,000, and enter upon works which would be certain to prove remunerative in the long- run. As it is, she must wait, and do little by little what a richer State might attempt more boldly. The programme before her is a large one, though she can but follow it slowly. To begin with, the Barrage must be completed, the level of the water maintained, and advantage taken of the extra supply by the cutting of canals and channels which will conduct the flood water to spots now barren. Next, an attempt must be made to drain the inland lakes, and to refertilise the soil by allowing repeated. settlements of the Nile water. The lakes are often only a foot, seldom more than four feet deep, and therefore the task is comparatively easy. What the result of successful reclamation might be, may be gathered from the fact that the Menzaleh Lake alone contains an area of eight hundred square miles. Then there is the formation, or rather, reconstruction, of the reservoir in the depression of the Fayum, by means of which the work of preventing a low Nile may be most materially assisted. If these schemes are ever accom- plished, we may well claim to rank with the Pharaohs as the benefactors of Egypt. But even if they are not, what we have already done will clear us from the charge of having neglected the interests of the population over whom we have extended our influence.
Previous page
