The great need has long been to store the waters during thmal time (when a large part of them run to waste) so that they might be turned over the fields during the mouths of low Nile, thus giving to Egypt the benefits of irrigation at all seasons, and making it possible to raise two or three crops annually where only one or tw•o were grown. Near Assuan, the gateway to Lower Egypt, the work on the great and much desired reservoir was begun. It was cooapbftem and formally opened in December, 1902. The work consists c•hielly of an enormous wall or dam of masonry nearly 2 miles long and averaging 60 feet in height. The wall is pierced Ii 150 open lags, each containing sluices through which the low• Nile any Pas'' and the retained flood water"' may escape as they are needed for irrigation. A roadway TUBS along the top of the wall. It is estimated by Sir William that the vol nine of water impounded by the (lain will reach the enormous total of 37,612,179,000 cubic feet. Ile estimates also that in the distribution of this reserve supply 70,000 nen., in Upper Egypt, be tween Assuan and Assiut. will receive perennial irrigation; also 458.000 acres now irrigated as basins in Egypt between Assiut and Cairo; that, further, 52,000 acres in the Fayum now untitled may be reclaimed; and that in Low er Egypt or the Delta the additional water will insure the cotton crop against drought. and re claim an area of 120,000 acres now uncultivated. In the Province of 1;hizoli likewise an area of 10G, 000 acres of basin cultivation will be converted into perennially irrigated land. Since the dam at Assuan closes the Nile to navigation, a canal 6540 feet in length with four locks is being constructed around it. Slail steamers and any stern-wheeler now• an the Nile may pass thr(mgh the canal, and sailing vessels may pass Assuan all the year round, though heretofore they have liven able to get through the cataract only during high Nile. lielow Assuan a barrage has also been constructed at Assiut for the purpose of raising the level of the river in summer. so that water may be de livered at that point at a higher level, increasing the discharge into the lbralihnia Canal, which carries the supplies to the basins as far north as Slinieh and Beni-Suef. These great works will
add enormously to the productivity of Egypt, will increase the value of all the farm lands, and will augment the revenues of the Government. See EGYPT and EGYPTIAN SUDAN.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Slost of the information on theBibliography. Slost of the information on the Nile is scattered through official publications and books relating to Egypt, the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, and the Lake Legion of Central Africa. Among these are: Bruce, Travels to biseorcr the 8oitrces of the Nile (3(1 ed., London, 1813) ; peke. The Soirees of the Nib' (ib., 18611) Speke, .lour• ital of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile (ib., 18(i3) ; Baker. Thr Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia 1567) ; The .1 /her?' Nyanza, areal Basin of the Nile and Exploration of the Sources (lb, 1571) ; Chavanne, Jfrikas Strame mat Fliisse (Vienna, 1S74) ; Schwein furth, Heart of Africa, trans. (2(1 ed.. London, 1875 ) ; Ebers, egyptcn in (Ind anal (t'or't (Stutt gart, 1879; trans. as Eyypt, Descriptive, His torical, and Picturesque', London, 1:-:11S); Egypt, in "Foreign Countries and British Colonies Series" (ib., 1,8511: llartnn?nn, Die ( Leipzig, 1884) ; Edwards, rl Thousand Iiifrs Up .\ ile (London. 15591: Will cocks. Egyptian Ir rigation (ib., 1559); .Tanker. Travels in Africa, t ra ns. ( ib., 1890-92 : linbw, i)frencrs on the Nile (ib., 1890); ('lAn, Le Nil, lc Soudan, l'Egyptc ( Pa ris, 1591 : Durch .11as saila zur (Berlin. 1894) : le anni tie( Sudan cgiziano (Shinn, 1891) : Report on I'er•eatnial Irrigation and Flood Protection for Egypt (Cairo, 1894) ; Report on the Nile and Country BeOrren Dongola, Suakin, Kassala, and Omdurma n (2d ed.. London, 1598) ; Stuldmann, 1117 Emit' Pasha ins Herz, von .1frika ( Berlin, 1594) ; Colville, The Land of the Nile Springs (London. 1595) : Brown and Carstin, History of Barrage at the Head of the Delta of Egypt (Cairo. 1591i) ; Wood, Egypt Under the British (London, 1890): Notes on Egyptian Crops 15913): Casati, Ten rears in Equaioria (London. 1895) ; White. The Expansion of Egypt (ib., 1899) ; Willeocks, The Nile Reservoir Dant at A S311 a n and After (ib.. 1901).