32. =The raising of the Assuân dam.=--Egypt already possesses the germ of all the storage works she needs. Six years ago a few far-seeing men saw clearly what all of us understand to-day; but among the few, no man had greater faith in the future of the country than Sir Ernest Cassel. The Assouân Reservoir project had been lying buried for four years in official pigeon holes, when in 1898 Sir Ernest came forward with the funds, and with Sir John Aird & Co., as contractors, and Sir Benjamin Baker as Consulting Engineer, undertook to complete the Assouân dam and the Assiout weir by December 1903. The Egyptian Government, advised by Sir William Garstin, accepted his offer, and received the completed works by December 1902. The Assouân dam is a granite structure 2,000 metres long which crosses the head of the Assouân cataract of the Nile in one continuous straight line. The dam is pierced by 140 under sluices of 7 metres by 2 metres for passing floods, and by 40 upper sluices of 3¹⁄₂ metres by 2 metres for passing the high level water of the reservoir. The sluices are regulated by “Stoney” gates worked by winches at the roadway level. While the red, muddy waters of the Nile flood are pouring down the river, the whole of the sluices are open and the river discharges itself through them without parting with its silt. This is the real object of the sluices, for if the dam were solid and the river forced to flow over the top, the reservoir would soon be filled with deposit and obliterated, while Egypt, deprived of this rich mud, would be considerably the poorer. This is the great feature of the dam. While the dam holds together, the reservoir will be free of silt. When the turbid flood has passed and the comparatively clear winter supply of the river has begun to arrive, the sluices are gradually closed and the reservoir filled. Beginning about the 1st December, the reservoir is filled in 100 days. It will ordinarily be full on the 1st March. No additional water is needed for irrigation between March 1st and May 1st as the river naturally has enough for the requirements of the area at present under crop at this season. As the area under perennial irrigation will be gradually increased, the demand for water for the new lands will begin about the 1st of April. The demand increases through May and June, and the reservoir will then be aiding the river with its supplement. If the flood is very late, water may be required from the reservoir till the 10th July; if the flood is early no water will be needed after the 20th of June, as in 1903, the first year of the reservoir. The earlier the flood the more effective the reservoir. By the time the flood has begun to get turbid, the under and upper sluices will all be open and the muddy waters of the Nile will sweep through the dam without impediment.