Looking back now after five years of prosperity, when Egyptian securities have actually increased in value, while Consols themselves have so greatly declined, it is easy to see that the statesman and the financier were justified in their faith. But in those days it needed a clear vision and a stout heart to calculate thirty years ahead—nay, even five—in a country so much the sport of international politics. The Soudan Campaign was not yet ended; behind the dervishes there loomed vague possibilities of worse complications. The Egyptian Government made a good bargain then, though it would doubtless make a better now. But it was then, and not now, that the business had to be settled. CHAPTER VIII THE DAM AND THE NEW BARRAGES Once the financial difficulty was settled, no time was lost in setting to work. As soon as the flood of 1898 began to subside, Messrs. Aird and Co., the contractors, were busy with the foundations of the Dam. Five years was the period allowed by the contract, but a succession of low Niles gave unusual facilities for the work, and everything was completed before the flood of 1902, a year before the specified time. From its vast proportions, the Dam is infinitely more impressive to the imagination than any other of the irrigation works in Egypt. But from an engineering point of view its construction was a plain, straightforward business compared with the difficulties of building a Barrage, where the river-bed offered no more solid foundation than shifting sands. Still, there was a moment, on the first uncovering of the river-bed, when its fate seemed to hang in the balance. The Assouan site had been selected principally because the outcrop of granite, there running clean across the valley, would give, it was thought, solid foundation at a convenient level. It was found that in some places the rock was rotten to a depth of 40 feet. It was an anxious moment, both from an engineering and a financial point of view. Every foot of rotten rock meant a considerable addition to the calculated expense, besides modifying the building plan. Once more Lord Cromer’s strong will saved the situation. On the financial side he stood on firm ground, and he proved as good an engineer as he had been a financier. Solid rock was reached, and the work went steadily forward. Ten thousand men was the usual sum of those employed, and of these 800 were Italian stone-cutters specially brought over to deal with the tough granite of which the Dam is built. Granite and Portland cement are the two great materials used for welding the fetters of the Nile.