There was much literature on the subject. During the last sixteen years nothing had been done, but much had been written, and more said. Commissions, expert and inexpert, had issued voluminous and condemnatory reports, and had even prepared expensive schemes of repair. Mr. Willcocks (now Sir William) is an indefatigable reader, and could hardly have been encouraged thereby, till an examination of the structure itself showed that all the later reports had been drawn up without reference to facts. It had been observed that whenever the gates were let down there was very severe action of the water on the downstream side. The authors of the reports concluded that the foundations were honeycombed. It is characteristic of the Looking-glass days of Ismail that no one ever thought of trying to find out by actual observation whether there might not be some other cause. But Mr. Willcocks, looking for himself, found that this action of the water was caused, not by honeycombed foundations, but by open gratings which intervened between the bottom of the sluice-gates and the platform. They had been put down originally to keep the silt away from the bottom of the gates. Someone had fixed them so as to prevent the gates from being lowered to their full extent and then they had actually been forgotten. Measures were at once taken to close these gratings, and eventually to remove them altogether. 20,000 cubic metres of rubble pitching were added to the talus. The Damietta Barrage was likewise strengthened with various ingenious expedients, improvised to meet the demands of the moment. Sluice-gates were put in for the first time and gradually closed. Part of it was closed by a temporary stone dam. Eventually in the summer of 1884 2·2 metres of water were held up on the Rosetta branch, and 1 metre on the Damietta. Next year the same nursing process was continued. The coffer-dam round the weak arches was strengthened, the talus of rubble pitching below each Barrage was completed, and this year 3 metres were held up on the Rosetta branch and 1·6 on the Damietta. The effect was extraordinary. The acreage under summer cultivation was doubled, rising from 600,000 to 1,200,000 acres. Not only was the supply of water in the Delta canals greatly increased throughout the summer, but, as it was delivered at a higher level, there was a great saving of expense in lifting it on to the land. For the first time the Egyptians thoroughly realized that a new power had come amongst them. The experiment had been successful, but temporary expedients could not last for ever. The more water held up, and the greater the area of the summer cultivation, the more necessary it became to insure the stability of the structure. A thorough repair would cost money. Fortunately, this was now forthcoming. Mr. Willcocks’ success had settled the claim of the Barrage to a share in the famous Irrigation Million borrowed in 1885.