We have seen how the tradition of Lake Mœris fascinated Mehemet Ali; but the methods of Haroun-al-Raschid were not suited to solid engineering works, as the history of the Barrage too plainly shows. None of his descendants, with the exception of the Khedive Ismail, had the wit to conceive or the ability to execute such an undertaking, and Ismail’s fantastic imagination was fully occupied in other directions. Fortunately for Egypt, the project had to wait until the success of the Barrage made the time ripe for its execution, and until skilful brains and strong hands were ready to plan and carry it out in the most efficient manner possible. There were three problems to be faced: first, Where could such a Reservoir be erected? second, What arrangements could be devised to avoid the danger of large silt deposits, which would soon seriously diminish the capacity of the Reservoir, and, if allowed to accumulate, render it in no long time entirely useless? third, Supposing that the difficulties of site and design could be overcome, where was the money to be found? During the first years of the British occupation, while Egypt was still painfully struggling upwards from the abyss of bankruptcy into which she had been cast by the mad whirlwind of extravagance in Ismail’s reign, it was no time for the inception of original works on a grand scale. But in 1890 the matter became an affair of practical politics, and was at last seriously taken in hand. Meantime discussion had been raging as to the best locality for the Reservoir. An American gentleman, Mr. Cope Whitehouse, took up the case of the Wadi Rayan, a depression in the desert to the south-west of the Fayoum. This, he maintained, was the real site of the ancient Lake Mœris, and here the Reservoir ought to be. He had no professional knowledge, and he was utterly wrong in his ideas; but his vehement method of controversy kept the subject thoroughly alive. The whole land was filled with his clamour, and every expert was forced to give his own views in self-defence. The debate served a useful purpose. Gradually it came to be recognised that the river-bed itself was the proper place for storing the water by means of a Dam. Authorities differ as to whom belongs the credit of first making this suggestion, or, rather, of first reviving the tradition of the past; but it seems pretty clear that Sir Samuel Baker suggested the construction of a Dam at the first cataract at Assouan as far back as 1867.