Now, sometimes it happens, as it happens also in India, that the rains fall short in Abyssinia. In such years the Nile brings down to Egypt a much smaller quantity of water. The fertilising flood is small, and there is danger of famine. As a precaution against these droughts, and also to extend the cultivated area some way into the desert, the British have constructed, near the southern end of Egypt, a great dam right across the valley. Here the dam is shown just when it was finished, and before the water had risen behind it. Do you notice beside the dam the canal with locks, by which the river traffic goes up and down notwithstanding the barrier to the flow of water? Do you see also all the openings in the dam to let the water through when it has risen high enough behind the masonry? Let me show you this same dam on the day when it was opened by the Duke of Connaught, brother of the King of England. This is he, wearing a white helmet and with medals and orders on his breast. Beside him are standing the Duchess of Connaught, the Khedive of Egypt, whom you may distinguish by the fez which he wears, and Lord Cromer, the great Englishman who has helped the Khedive to build the dam. You can distinguish Lord Cromer by his tall white hat. The water in the picture has risen to a high level behind the dam, the sluices have just been opened, and the stream is pouring on once more towards the sea. Every year the water now collects behind the dam during the period of flood, and is then let gradually down during the period of low Nile. Thus Egypt is becoming rich because its people are saved from famine, and new land, formerly desert, is brought under cultivation. [Sidenote: 42. Port Said--Coaling.] Let us return to our ship, which is waiting for us at Port Said, the port at the northern end of the Suez Canal. Here is a great mail steamer taking in coal for the remainder of her voyage from India. Is it not wonderful to think of the thousands upon thousands of tons of coal that are dug out of the ground in the British Islands and sent over the seas to drive most of the 9,000 steamers which do the trade of the British Empire? [Sidenote: 43. Map of the Mediterranean.] [Sidenote: 44. Malta.] [Sidenote: 45. Gibraltar.]