The won

work will be made to Sir Ernest Cassel in an annuity of £160,000 a year, the first payment to be made in July, 1903. That the Egyptian Government will not only be able to pay the annuity, but will profit immensely by the new dams, is more than assured by the fact that the barrage at Assiout, already in operation, is now earning enough to pay the entire annuity.

The dam at Assouan is a dam such as was derful dam. never projected before. To build a great wall across an ordinary stream is merely a matter of labor, but to throw up a dam in the heart of a Nile cataract is a daring engineering undertaking.

Engineering difficulties.

Rubble and sand.

"We had no idea of the difficulties we were to meet," said Sir Benjamin Baker to the writer, in describing the work at Assouan. "We were greatly hampered in the work at the beginning because of the uncertainties of the river bed. We had to crush one turbulent channel after another, to enable our thousands of workmen to go down into the bed of the river to excavate for the foundation.. This work had to be done at High Nile to enable us to begin excavating as soon as the Nile subsided. In closing a channel, we first threw ton after ton of granite blocks into the cataract, and then we pitched in trainloads of rock, trucks and all. Gradually the rubble mound rose above the surface of the water. After the flood had subsided we banked this

rock wall with many thousand bags of sand. What a task we had to get those bags! We used eight million, and we had to search all Europe for them. When the floods rose again we anxiously watched the excavation ditch protected by these walls of rock and sand bags. We had a score of great pumps ready to draw out the water should it rush in, but so well had our sudds been constructed that two pumps were as many as we needed.

Rotten rock

"When we finally got to work in earnest in the bed of the river, we found the task was a more formidable one than we had imagined. The rock in many places was such as no engi- bed. neer would think of building a dam upon. It was rotten rock that crumbled into sand under the pick. We worked down yard after yard looking for solid rock, and in some places we had to go forty feet below the bed of the river to find it. This enormous excavation, of course, greatly increased the cost of the work. When I saw that we would practically have to excavate a deep ditch through the river bed to get to solid rock, I told Lord Cromer I did not know how much it would cost, but it would be done. Lord Cromer said, 'Go ahead!'"

The work was carried on night and day through the winter and spring before the flood came rushing down the valley. An army of native labor was thrown into the ditch. At one time 13,000 men were at work on the As- men emsouan dam. Despite the unexpected engi

Number of

ployed.

Yearly

revenue.

neering difficulties, the work has actually been completed a year ahead of time.

If private companies could go into Egypt, build great dams and irrigation works, and receive the revenue that they would earn, all the Morgans and Carnegies and Rothschilds would be rushing off to Egypt to build dams; for a dam in Egypt is a bigger money-maker than an Atlantic steamship line, or a steel works, or a beef combine. Lord Cromer roughly estimates that the dam at Assouan, which has cost about £2,500,000, will increase the agricultural earning power of Egypt by £2,600,000 every year. That is, the Assouan dam, High Nile or Low Nile, will pay for its entire construction every year. Lord Cromer estimates that the actual increase in the government revenue, because of an irrigation of an added 1,600,000 acres of land, will be £380,000; so that the Assouan dam will not only pay twice over the annuity of £160,000, but it will give a surplus of £2,500,000 a year to the country.

THE BATTLE OF TSUSHIMA*

A

(A.D. 1905)

JOHN LEYLAND

voyage of

vensky

DMIRAL ROJESTVENSKY left Cron- The stadt on October 15, 1904, and, proceed- Rojesting through the North Sea, occasioned the deplorable incident of the Dogger Bank, which will long be remembered. The squadron arrived at Vigo on October 26, and, notwithstanding the objection of the Spanish authorities, some ships filled their bunkers in the harbor there.

Rojestvensky left the port on November 1, and proceeded to Tangier, where he coaled the rest of his fleet without consulting the Sultan of Morocco. After this he divided his force, sending Rear-Admiral Folkersahm with the older vessels and the destroyers by the Suez Canal route, while he proceeded himself with the new battleships by way of the Cape. The rear-admiral coaled his division at Algiers, at Suda Bay, at Djibuti, and finally, it is believed, off the German port of Dar-es-Salaam, proceeding thence to Mada*This battle is officially known as the Battle of the Sea of Japan.

gascar. Meanwhile, Admiral Rojestvensky had gone down the west coast of Africa, coaling at Dakar and the Gaboon, at the Portuguese station of Mossamedes, and again off Angra Pequena. At length he arrived off News of Sainte Marie, Madagascar, and effected his Arthur's junction with Rear-Admiral Folkersahm at

Port

Nossi-Bé on January 9, 1905. At Madagascar he heard the calamitous news of the fall of Port Arthur, an event that profoundly modified the situation, and would have made further progress hopeless if another squadron had not been in preparation. Extraordinary efforts were made in naval and court circles to urge the Russian Government to despatch reenforcements as soon as possible. The fleet did not leave Madagascar until March 16. On April 8 Admiral Rojestvensky appeared off Singapore, and proceeded thence to Kamranh Bay, on the coast of Annam, in the waters of French Indo-China. He was reported there Russian on April 14, and he remained at Kamranh

Make-up of the

fleet

until April 26, engaged in coaling and completing supplies. His sojourn in neutral waters caused the utmost indignation in Japan, but the French admiral was unable to get the Russians to move, and it is stated that, when at length they left, it was under express orders from the Czar. On the next day, however, April 27, the fleet was reported at Honkohe Bay, some sixty miles up the coast, and it was still there on May 8, some of the ships