Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/512

 414 NORTH-EAST AFRICA.

Menufieh Canal intersects the large island of Shalaganeh, which has been converted by walls and ramparts into a fortified stronghold. This is the important fortress of Saadieh, which at once commands both branches of the Nile, and the two principal lines of railway in Lower Egypt. This colossal work, the first stone of which was laid by Mohammed Ali in the year 1847, was originally planned for the purpose of reclaiming many tens of thousands of acres of waste land and regulating the navigation throughout the whole of Lower Egypt. But the enthusiasm of the Albanian viceroy was not sustained by an equal degree of perseverance, and some parts of the general design were either neglected or indifferently executed. Hence the foundations have partly given way, wide openings are visible in many of the

arches, and of the three canals, the Sharkieh, Beharah, and Menufieh, that should have been excavated, the last-mentioned alone has been completed.

Nevertheless even in its present unfinished state the barrage of the Nile is by no means an altogether useless work, the lamentable monument of an aimless prodigality, as it has been so often described. It serves at least every year to raise by 6 or 7 feet the water level of the main stream. According to the English engineer Fowler, a farther outlay of about one million sterling would be needed to raise the level by 16 feet, as originally intended, to strengthen the foundations, and complete the system of canalisation. But at the same time it would be also necessary to modify the original plan, in order to prevent the constant accumulations of sedimentary matter above the barrage, or else construct navigable canals along this section of the Nile.