A marvellous story of British enter prise and organising skill w<is told by Sir Colin Moncrieff in the lecture he delivered at the Working Men's Col lege, London, on Egypt and the Nile. Sir Colin described in detail the measures taken by English engineers to improve the irrigation system of the Lower Nile, and to regulate the water supply. He explained how the great barrage across the river was repaired under his direction, and a truly|mar vellous piece of work it waa. The barrage is a long dam or low bridge of many arches, intended to impound and hold up the waters of the life giving river when they are too low to overtop the high banks and flood the country. If. was built by French en gineers in 18(31, but never used, and in 1867 great cracks split the whole structure from top to bottom. Sir Colin and his assistants repaired the cracks with cement, and laid bare tho foundations by pumping out the water round it, and so made a solid base of concrete for the huge fabric of brick and earth, with the result that the dam has been able to resist the pressure of the flood against it, and holds up the river securely until millions of tons of water hive been poured into the irriga tion canals, and the value of the Egyptian cotton crop is increased annually by an amount representing five times the whole cost of Sir Colin's works. Not the least extraordinary item in the story is the fact that it was found necessary to shift the Nile bodily, so that it now runs a quarter of a mile east of its old course. If Egypt owed nothing else to the British occupation, its debt to Sir Colin and his engineers would be incalculable.
