At present far-reaching schemes are being carefully inquired into, under the guidance of Sir W. Garstin. Fortunately for Egypt, she possesses in him an adviser of unsurpassed experience, cool, careful, and level-headed, upon whose final judgment she may confidently rely. He has already made a report, after personal observation, upon the White Nile and its main affluents, and he has recently returned from a journey to Lake Victoria Nyanza and Lakes Albert and Albert Edward, the results of which have not yet been published. Another expedition was also sent in 1902-1903 to explore Lake Tsana and the upper course of the Blue Nile. A mass of information is being collected and quietly digested, and in due time the policy to be pursued will be settled on. For the moment there is no occasion for hurrying. It will take time for Egypt to make full use of the advantages of the Assouan Reservoir. The Soudan, though rapidly progressing, is hardly yet in a position to reap the advantage of such changes on a great scale. When the engineers have completed their observations, there will still be the financial aspect of the question to take in hand. Schemes involving the regulation of 2,000 miles of river cannot be subjected to too great scrutiny before arriving at a decision. It would be rash to speculate on what course will be finally adopted, before all the data are known, but it will not be out of place to give some indication of the rival projects in view, and to glance at some of the arguments for and against. All the schemes aim at establishing a control over the head-waters of the Blue or the White Nile, and so increasing the supply in the river when it is most scanty. Anyone can see that the Blue Nile depends upon Lake Tsana, which is across the Abyssinian frontier, and the White Nile upon the Lakes Victoria and Albert Nyanza. Proposals have been made for regulating the outflow from each of these lakes, or from them all, and also for preventing the waste of water which now takes place in the swamp country south of Fashoda. Up till now the plan of building a dam at the point where the Blue Nile emerges from Lake Tsana has been most in favour.