The Canal of Joseph.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 404, 21 September 1889, Page 6

The Canal of Joseph.

How many of the engineering works of the 19th. remarks -.^Engineering" will there be in existence in the year 6,000 ? Very lew, we;, fear, and -still less those that; will continue in the far oft age to serre a useful purpose. Yet there is at least one great undertaking conceived and executed by an engineer which during the space of four thousand years has never ceased its office, on which the life of a' fertile province absolutely depends- to-day. We refer to the Bhar Jeussuf-^- the 'canal' of Joseph built, according to tradition, by the son of Jacob, and which constitutes not the least of the many blessings he conferred onEgypt during the years of his prosperous rule. This canal took its rise from the' Nile ab 'Asiut, and ran nearly parallel, with it tor nearly two hundred and fifty miles, creeping alonj; under the western cliffs of the Nile Valley, with many a bend and winding, until at length it gained an eminence, as compared with the ' river bed,' which enabled it to turn westward through a narrow pa&s and enter a district which was otherwise shut off from the fertilising floods on which all vegetation in Egypt depends. The northern end stood seventeen feeb above low Nile, while at the southern end it was at an eqmd elevation with the river. Through this cut ran a perennial stream which watered a province named' the Fayoum, endowing it with fertility and supporting a large population. In the time of the annual flood a great part of the canal was under water, and then the river's current would rush in a more direct course into the pass, carrying with it the rich silb which takes the place of manure and keeps the soil in a state of constant productiveness. All this, with the exception of the tradition that Joceph built it, can be verified today; and it is nob mere supposition or rumour. Until eight years ago, it was firmly believed that the design has always been limited to an irrigation scheme larger, no doubt, Hian that now m operation, as shown by the traces of abandoned canals and by the slow aggregation of waste water which had accumulated in the I&rketr le Querun, but still essentially the same in character. Many accounts have been written by Greek and Roman, historians, 3uch as Herodotus, Stiabo, Mutianus and Pliny, and repeated in monkish legends or portrayed in the maps of the Middle Ages, which agreed with the folk lore of the district. These talcs explained that the canal dug by the ancient I&raclite served to carry the surplus waters of the Nile into an extensive lake lying south of the Fayoum, and so large that it not only modified the climate, tempering the arid winds of the desert and converting them into the balmy airs which nourished the vines and the olives into a fulness and fragrance unknown in any part of the country, but also added to the food supply of the land such immense quantities of iish that the royal prerogative of the right of piscary ab the great weir waa valued at $250, 000 annually. This lake was said to be 450 miles round, and to be navigated by a fleet of vessels, while the whole circumference was the scene of iiidusry and pro&perityt.