[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Map showing the Damietta and Rosetta dams on the

Nile.]

Mougel's barrage, as it may now be seen, is a very imposing and stately

work. Considering his want of experience of such rivers as the Nile, and

the great difficulties he had to contend with under a succession of

ignorant Turkish rulers, it would be unfair to blame him because, until

it fell into the hands of British engineers in 1884, the work was

condemned as a hopeless failure. It took long years to complete, at a

cost which can never be estimated, since much of it was done by serf

labour. In 1861 it was at length said to be finished; but it was not

until 1863 that the gates of the Rosetta branch were closed, and they

were reopened again immediately, as a settlement of the masonry took

place. The experiment was repeated year after year till 1867, when the

barrage cracked right across from foundation to top. A massive

coffer-dam was then erected, covering the eleven arches nearest the

crack; but the work was never trusted again, nor the water-surface

raised more than about 3 ft.

An essential part of the barrage project was the three canals, taking

their water from just above it, as shown in fig. 2. The heads of the

existing old canals, taken out of the river at intervals throughout the

delta, were to be closed, and the canals themselves all put into

connexion with the three high-level trunk lines taken from above the

barrage. The central canal, or Menufia, was more or less finished, and,

although full of defects, has done good service. The eastern canal was

never dug at all until the British occupation. The western, or Behera,

canal was dug, but within its first 50 m. it passes through desert, and

sand drifted into it. _Corvees_ of 20,000 men used to be forced to clear

it out year after year, but at last it was abandoned. Thus the whole

system broke down, the barrage was pronounced a failure, and attention

was turned to watering Lower Egypt by a system of gigantic pumps, to

raise the water from the river and discharge it into a system of shallow

surface-canals, at an annual cost of about L250,000, while the cost of

the pumps was estimated at L700,000. Negotiations were on foot for

carrying out this system when the British engineers arrived in Egypt.

They soon resolved that it would be very much better if the original

scheme of using the barrage could be carried out, and after a careful

examination of the work they were satisfied that this could be done. The

barrage rests entirely on the alluvial bed of the Nile. Nothing more

solid than strata of sand and mud is to be found for more than 200 ft.

below the river. It was out of the question, therefore, to think of

founding on solid material, and yet it was desired to have a head of

water of 13 or 14 ft. upon the work. Of course, with such a pressure as

this, there was likely to be percolation under the foundations and a

washing-out of the soil. It had to be considered whether this

percolation could best be checked by laying a solid wall across the

river, going down to 50 or 60 ft. below its bed, or by spreading out the

foundations above and below the bridge, so as to form one broad

water-tight flooring--a system practised with eminent success by Sir

Arthur Cotton in Southern India. It was decided to adopt the latter

system. As originally designed, the flooring of the barrage from

up-stream to downstream face was 111.50 ft. wide, the distance which had

to be travelled by water percolating under the foundations. This width

of flooring was doubled to 223 ft., and along the upstream face a line

of sheet piling was driven 16 ft. deep. Over the old flooring was

superposed 15 in. of the best rubble masonry, an ashlar floor of blocks

of close-grained trachyte being laid directly under the bridge, where

the action was severest. The working season lasted only from the end of

November to the end of June, while the Nile was low; and the difficulty

of getting in the foundations was increased, as, in the interests of

irrigation and to supply the Menufia canal, water was held up every

season while the work was in progress to as much as 10 ft. The work was

begun in 1886, and completed in June 1890. Moreover, in the meantime the

eastern, or Tewfikia, canal was dug and supplied with the necessary

masonry works for a distance of 23 m., to where it fed the network of

old canals. The western, or Behera, canal was thoroughly cleared out and

remodelled; and thus the whole delta irrigation was supplied from above

the barrage.

The outlay on the barrage between 1883 and 1891 amounted to about

L460,000. The average cotton crop for the 5 years preceding 1884

amounted to 123,000 tons, for the 5 years ending 1898 it amounted to

251,200 tons. At the low rate of L40 per ton, this means an annual

increase to the wealth of Lower Egypt of L5,128,000. Since 1890 the

barrage has done its duty without accident, but a work of such vast

importance to Lower Egypt required to be placed beyond all risk. It

having been found that considerable hollow spaces existed below the

foundations of some of the piers, five bore-holes from the top of the

roadway were pierced vertically through each pier of both barrages, and

similar holes were drilled at intervals along all the lock walls. Down

these holes cement grout was injected under high pressure on the system

of Mr Kinipple. The work was successfully carried out during the seasons

1896 to 1898. During the summer of 1898 the Rosetta barrage was worked

under a pressure of 14 ft. But this was looked on as too near the limit

of safety to be relied on, and in 1899 subsidiary weirs were started

across both branches of the river a short distance below the two

barrages. These were estimated to cost L530,000 altogether, and were to

stand 10.8 ft. above the river's bed, allowing the water-surface

up-stream of the barrage to be raised 7.2 ft., while the pressure on

that work itself would not exceed 10 ft. These weirs were satisfactorily

completed in 1901.

The barrage is the greatest, but by no means the only important masonry

work in Lower Egypt. Numerous regulating bridges and locks have been

built to give absolute control of the water and facilities for

navigation; and since 1901 a second weir has been constructed opposite

Zifta, across the Damietta branch of the Nile, to improve the irrigation

of the Dakhilia province.

In the earlier section of this article it is explained how necessary it

is that irrigation should always be accompanied by drainage. This had

been totally neglected in Egypt; but very large sums have been spent on

it, and the country is now covered with a network of drains nearly as

complete as that of the canals.

Basin irrigation of Upper Egypt.

The ancient system of basin irrigation is still pursued in Upper Egypt,

though by the end of 1907 over 320,000 feddans of land formerly under

basin irrigation had been given, at a cost of over LE3,000,000,

perennial irrigation. This conversion work was carried out in the

provinces situated between Cairo and Assiut, a region sometimes

designated Middle Egypt. The ancient system seems simple enough; but in

order really to flood the whole Nile Valley during seasons of defective

as well as favourable floods, a system of regulating sluices, culverts

and syphons is necessary; and for want of such a system it was found, in

the feeble flood of 1888, that there was an area of 260,000 acres over

which the water never flowed. This cost a loss of land revenue of about

L300,000, while the loss of the whole season's crop to the farmer was of

course much greater. The attention of the British engineers was then

called to this serious calamity; and fortunately for Egypt there was

serving in the country Col. J. C. Ross, R.E., an officer who had devoted

many years of hard work to the irrigation of the North-West Provinces of

India, and who possessed quite a special knowledge as well as a glowing

enthusiasm for the subject. Fortunately, too, it was possible to supply

him with the necessary funds to complete and remodel the canal system.

When the surface-water of a river is higher than the fields right and

left, there is nothing easier than to breach the embankments and flood

the fields--in fact, it may be more difficult to prevent their being

flooded than to flood them--but in ordinary floods the Nile is never

higher than all the bordering lands, and in years of feeble flood it is

higher than none of them. To water the valley, therefore, it is

necessary to construct canals having bed-slopes less than that of the

river, along which the water flows until its surface is higher than that

of the fields. If, for instance, the slope of the river be 4 in. per

mile, and that of the canal 2 in. it is evident that at the end of a

mile the water in the canal will be 2 in. higher than in the river; and

if the surface of the land is 3 ft. higher than that of the river, the

canal, gaining on it at 2 in. per mile, will reach the surface in 18 m.,

and from thence onwards will be above the adjoining fields. But to

irrigate this upper 18 m., water must either be raised artificially, or

supplied from another canal taking its source 18 m. farther up. This

would, however, involve the country in great lengths of canal between

the river and the field, and circumstances are not so unfavourable as

this. Owing to the deltaic nature of the Nile Valley, the fields on the

banks are 3 ft. above the flood, at 2 m. away from the banks they may

not be more than 1 ft. above that level, so that the canal, gaining 2

in. per mile and receding from the river, will command the country in 6

m. The slope of the river, moreover, is taken in its winding course; and

if it is 4 in. per mile, the slope of the axis of the valley parallel to

which the canals may be made to flow is at least 6 in. per mile, so that

a canal with a slope of 2 in. gains 4 in. per mile.

The system of having one canal overlapping another has one difficulty to

contend with. Occasionally the desert cliffs and slopes come right down

to the river, and it is difficult, if not impossible, to carry the

higher-level canals past these obstructions. It should also be noticed

that on the higher strip bordering the river it is the custom to take

advantage of its nearness to raise water by pumps, or other machinery,

and thereby to grow valuable crops of sugar-cane, maize or vegetables.

When the river rises, these crops, which often form a very important

part of the year's produce and are termed _Nabari_, are still in the

ground, and they require water in moderate and regulated quantities, in

contradistinction to the wholesale flooding of the flats beyond. Fig. 3

will serve to explain this system of irrigation, the firm lines

representing canals, the dotted lines embankments. It will be seen,

beginning on the east or right bank of the river, that a high-level

canal from an upper system is carried past a steep slope, where perhaps

it is cut entirely out of rock, and it divides into two. The right

branch waters all the desert slopes within its reach and level. The left

branch passes, by a syphon aqueduct, under what is the main canal of the

system, taken from the river close at hand (and therefore at a lower

level). This left branch irrigates the _Nabari_ on the high lands

bordering the river. In years of very favourable flood this high-level

canal would not be wanted at all; the irrigation could be done from the

main canal, and with this great advantage, that the main canal water

would carry with it much more fertilizing matter than would be got from

the tail of the high-level canal, which left the river perhaps 25 m. up.

The main canal flows freely over the flats C and D, and, if the flood is

good, over B and part of A. It is carried round the next desert point,

and to the north becomes the high-level canal. The masonry works

required for this system are a syphon to pass the high level under the

main canal near its head, bridges fitted with sluices where each canal

passes under an embankment, and an escape weir at the tail of the

system, just south of the desert point, to return surplus water to the

river. Turning to the left bank, there is the same high-level canal from

the upper system irrigating the basins K, P and L, as well as the large

basin E in such years as it cannot be irrigated from the main canal.

Here there are two main canals--one following the river, irrigating a

series of smaller basins, and throwing out a branch to its left, the

other passing under the desert slopes and supplying the basins F, G, H

and S. For this system two syphons will be required near the head,

regulating bridges under all the embankments, and an escape weir back

into the river.

[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Map of the Basin System of Irrigation.]

In the years following 1888 about 100 new masonry works of this kind

were built in Upper Egypt, nearly 400 m. of new canal were dug, and

nearly 300 m. of old canal were enlarged and deepened. The result has

been, as already stated, that with a complete failure of the Nile flood

the loss to the country has been trifling compared with that of 1877.

Assiut Weir and Esna Barrage.

The first exception in Upper Egypt to the basin system of irrigation was

due to the Khedive Ismail. The khedive, having acquired vast estates in

the provinces of Assiut, Miniah, Beni-Suef and the Fayum, resolved to

grow sugar-cane on a very large scale, and with this object constructed

a very important perennial canal, named the Ibrahimia, taking out of the

left bank of the Nile at the town of Assiut, and flowing parallel to the

river for about 200 m., with an important branch which irrigates the

Fayum. This canal was badly constructed, and by entirely blocking the

drainage of the valley did a great deal of harm to the lands. Most of

its defects had been remedied, but one remained. There being at its

head no weir across the Nile, the water in the Ibrahimia canal used to

rise and fall with that of the river, and so the supply was apt to run

short during the hottest months, as was the case with the canals of

Lower Egypt before the barrage was built. To supply the Ibrahimia canal

at all during low Nile, it had been necessary to carry on dredging

operations at an annual cost of about L12,000. This has now been

rectified, in the same way as in Lower Egypt, by the construction of a

weir across the Nile, intended to give complete control over the river

and to raise the water-surface 8.2 ft. The Assiut weir is constructed on

a design very similar to that of the barrage in Lower Egypt. It consists

of a bridge of 111 arches, each 5 metres span, with piers of 2 metres

thickness. In each arch are fitted two gates. There is a lock 80 metres

long and 16 metres wide at the left or western end of the weir, and

adjoining it are the regulating sluices of the Ibrahimia canal. The

Assiut weir across the Nile is just about half a mile long. The work was

begun at the end of 1898 and finished early in 1902--in time to avert

over a large area the disastrous effects which would otherwise have

resulted from the low Nile of that year. The money value of the crops

saved by the closing of the weir was not less than LE690,000. The

conversion of the lands north of Assiut from basin to perennial

irrigation began immediately after the completion of the Assiut weir and

was finished by the end of 1908. To render the basin lands of the Kena

province independent of the flood being bad or good, another barrage was

built across the Nile at Esna at a cost of L1,000,000. This work was

begun in 1906 and completed in 1909.

Storage.

These works, as well as that in Lower Egypt, are intended to raise the

water-surface above it, and to control the distribution of its supply,

but in no way to store that supply. The idea of ponding up the

superfluous flood discharge of the river is not a new one, and if

Herodotus is to be believed, it was a system actually pursued at a very

early period of Egyptian history, when Lake Moeris in the Fayum was

filled at each Nile flood, and drawn upon as the river ran down. When

British engineers first undertook the management of Egyptian irrigation

many representations were made to them of the advantage of storing the

Nile water; but they consistently maintained that before entering on

that subject it was their duty to utilize every drop of the water at

their disposal. This seemed all the more evident, as at that time

financial reasons made the construction of a costly Nile dam out of the

question. Every year, however, between 1890 and 1902 the supply of the

Nile during May and June was actually exhausted, no water at all flowing

then out into the sea. In these years, too, owing to the extension of

drainage works, the irrigable area of Egypt was greatly enlarged, so

that if perennial cultivation was at all to be increased, it was

necessary to increase the volume of the river, and this could only be

done by storing up the flood supply. The first difficulty that presented

itself in carrying this out, was that during the months of highest flood

the Nile is so charged with alluvial matter that to pond it up then

would inevitably lead to a deposit of silt in the reservoir, which would

in no great number of years fill it up. It was found, however, that the

flood water was comparatively free from deposit by the middle of

November, while the river was still so high that, without injuring the

irrigation, water might go on being stored up until March. Accordingly,

when it was determined to construct a dam, it was decided that it should

be supplied with sluices large enough to discharge unchecked the whole

volume of the river as it comes down until the middle of November, and

then to begin the storage.

The Assuan Dam.

The site selected for the great Nile dam was at the head of the First

Cataract above Assuan. A dyke of syenite granite here crosses the

valley, so hard that the river had nowhere scoured a deep channel

through it, and so it was found possible to construct the dam entirely

in the open air, without the necessity of laying under-water

foundations. The length of the dam is about 6400 ft.--nearly 1(1/4) m.

The greatest head of water in it is 65 ft. It is pierced by 140

under-sluices of 150 sq. ft. each, and by 40 upper-sluices, each of 75

sq. ft. These, when fully open, are capable of discharging the ordinary

maximum Nile flood of 350,000 cub. ft. per second, with a velocity of

15.6 ft. per second and a head of 6.6 ft. The top width of the dam is 23

ft., the bottom width at the deepest part about 82 ft. On the left flank

of the dam there is a canal, provided with four locks, each 262 by 31

ft. in area, so that navigation is possible at all seasons. The storage

capacity of the reservoir is about 3,750,000 millions of cub. ft., which

creates a lake extending up the Nile Valley for about 200 m. The

reservoir is filled yearly by March; after that the volume reaching the

reservoir from the south is passed on through the sluices. In May, or

earlier when the river is late in rising, when the demand for water

increases, first the upper and then the under sluices are gradually

opened, so as to increase the river supply, until July, when all the

gates are open, to allow of the free passage of the flood. On the 10th

of December 1902 this magnificent work was completed. The engineer who

designed it was Sir W. Willcocks. The contractors were Messrs John Aird

& Co., the contract price being L2,000,000. The financial treaties in

which the Egyptian government were bound up prevented their ever paying

so large a sum as this within five years; but a company was formed in

London to advance periodically the sum due to the contractors, on

receipt from the government of Egypt of promissory notes to pay sixty

half-yearly instalments of L78,613, beginning on the 1st of July 1903.

Protective works downstream of the dam were completed in 1906 at a cost

of about LE304,000. It had been at first intended to raise the dam to a

height which would have involved the submergence, for some months of

every year, of the Philae temples, situated on an island just upstream

of the dam. Had the natives of Egypt been asked to choose between the

preservation of Ptolemy's famed temple and the benefit to be derived

from a considerable additional depth of water storage, there can be no

question that they would have preferred the latter; but they were not

consulted, and the classical sentiment and artistic beauty of the place,

skilfully pleaded by archaeologists and artists, prevailed. In 1907,

however, it was decided to carry out the plan as originally proposed and

raise the dam 26 ft. higher. This would increase the storage capacity

2(1/2) times, or to about 9,375,000 millions of cubic feet.

There is no middle course of farming in Egypt between irrigation and

desert. No assessment can be levied on lands which have not been

watered, and the law of Egypt requires that in order to render land

liable to taxation the water during the Nile flood must have flowed

naturally over it. It is not enough that it should be pumped on to the

land at the expense of the landowner. The tax usually levied is from L1

to L2 per acre.

See Sir W. Willcocks, _Egyptian Irrigation_ (2nd ed., 1899); Sir C. C.

Scott-Moncrieff, _Lectures on Irrigation in Egypt. Professional Papers

on the Corps of Royal Engineers_, vol. xix. (London, 1893); Sir W.

Garstin, _Report upon the Basin of the Upper Nile_. Egypt No. 2

(1904).

V. _India._--Allusion has already been made to the irrigation of India.

The year 1878, which saw the end of a most disastrous famine, may be

considered as the commencement of a new era as regards irrigation. It

had at last been recognized that such famines must be expected to occur

at no very long intervals of time, and that the cost of relief

operations must not be met by increasing the permanent debt on the

country, but by the creation of a famine relief and a famine insurance

fund. For this purpose it was fixed that there should be an annual

provision of [R]x. 1,500,000, to be spent on: (1) relief, (2) protective

works, (3) reduction of debt. Among protective works the first place was

given to works of irrigation. These works were divided into three

classes: (i.) productive works; (ii.) protective works; (iii.) minor

works.

Productive works, as their name implies, are such as may reasonably be

expected to be remunerative, and they include all the larger irrigation

systems. Their capital cost is provided from loan funds, and not from

the relief funds mentioned above. In the seventeen years ending

1896-1897 the capital expenditure on such works was [R]x. 10,954,948,

including a sum of [R]x. 1,742,246 paid to the Madras Irrigation Company

as the price of the Kurnool-Cuddapah canal, a work which can never be

financially productive, but which nevertheless did good service in the

famine of 1896-1897 by irrigating 87,226 acres. In the famine year

1877-1878 the area irrigated by productive canals was 5,171,497 acres.

In the famine year 1896-1897 the area was 9,571,779 acres, including an

area of 123,087 acres irrigated on the Swat river canal in the Punjab.

The revenue of the year 1879-1880 was nearly 6% on the capital outlay.

In 1897-1898 it was 7(1/2)%. In the same seventeen years [R]x. 2,099,253

were spent on the construction of protective irrigation works, not

expected to be directly remunerative, but of great value during famine

years. On four works of this class were spent [R]x. 1,649,823, which in

1896-1897 irrigated 200,733 acres, a valuable return then, although in

an ordinary year their gross revenue does not cover their working

expenses. Minor works may be divided into those for which capital

accounts have been kept and those where they have not. In the seventeen

years ending 1896-1897, [R]x. 827,214 were spent on the former, and

during that year they yielded a return of 9.13%. In the same year the

irrigation effected by minor works of all sorts showed the large area of

7,442,990 acres. Such are the general statistics of outlay, revenue and

irrigated area up to the end of 1896-1897. The government might well be

congratulated on having through artificial means ensured in that year of

widespread drought and famine the cultivation of 27,326 sq. m., a large

tract even in so large a country as India. And progress has been

steadily made in subsequent years.

Some description will now be given of the chief of these irrigation

works. Beginning with the Punjab, the province in which most progress

has been made, the great Sutlej canal, which irrigates the country to

the left of that river, was opened in 1882, and the Western Jumna canal

(perhaps the oldest in India) was extended into the dry Hissar and Sirsa

districts, and generally improved so as to increase by nearly 50% its

area of irrigation between 1878 and 1897. Perhaps this is as much as can

well be done with the water at command for the country between the

Sutlej and the Jumna, and it is enough to secure it for ever from

famine. The Bari Doab canal, which irrigates the Gurdaspur, Amritsar and

Lahore districts, has been enlarged and extended so as to double its

irrigation since it was projected in 1877-1878. The Chenab canal, the

largest in India and the most profitable, was only begun in 1889. It was

designed to command an area of about 2(1/2) million acres, and to

irrigate annually rather less than half that area. This canal flows

through land that in 1889 was practically desert. From the first

arrangements were made for bringing colonists in from the more congested

parts of India. The colonization began in 1892. Nine years later this

canal watered 1,830,525 acres. The population of the immigrant colony

was 792,666, consisting mainly of thriving and prosperous peasants with

occupancy rights in holdings of about 28 acres each. The direct revenue

of this canal in 1906 was 26% on the capital outlay. The Jhelum canal

was opened on the 30th of October, 1901. It is a smaller work than the

Chenab, but it is calculated to command 1,130,000 acres, of which at

least half will be watered annually. A much smaller work, but one of

great interest, is the Swat river canal in the Peshawar valley. It was

never expected that this would be a remunerative work, but it was

thought for political reasons expedient to construct it in order to

induce turbulent frontier tribes to settle down into peaceful

agriculture. This has had a great measure of success, and the canal

itself has proved remunerative, irrigating 123,000 acres in 1896-1897. A

much greater scheme than any of the above is that of the Sind Sagar

canal, projected from the left bank of the Indus opposite Kalabagh, to

irrigate 1,750,000 acres at a cost of [R]x. 6,000,000. Another great

canal scheme for the Punjab proposed to take off from the right bank of

the Sutlej, and to irrigate about 600,000 acres in the Montgomery and

Multan districts, at a cost of [R]x. 2,500,000. These three last

projects would add 2,774,000 acres to the irrigated area of the

province, and as they would flow through tracts almost unpeopled, they

would afford a most valuable outlet for the congested districts of

northern India. In addition to these great perennial canals, much has

been done since 1878 in enlarging and extending what are known as the

"inundation canals" of the Punjab, which utilize the flood waters in the

rivers during the monsoon season and are dry at other times. By these

canals large portions of country throughout most of the Punjab are

brought under cultivation, and the area thus watered has increased from

about 180,000 to 500,000 acres since 1878.

It is on inundation canals such as these that the whole cultivation of

Sind depends. In 1878 the area was about 1,500,000 acres; in 1896-1897

it had increased to 2,484,000 acres. This increase was not due to famine

in Sind, for that rainless province depends always on the Indus, as

Egypt does on the Nile, and where there is no rainfall there can be no

drought. But the famine prices obtained for agricultural produce

doubtless gave an impetus to cultivation. In Sind, too, there is room

for much increase of irrigation. It has been proposed to construct two

new canals, the Jamrao and the Shikarpur, and to improve and extend

three existing canals--Nasrat, Naulakhi and Dad. The total cost of these

five projects, some of which are now in progress, was estimated at [R]x.

1,596,682, and the extension of irrigation at 660,563 acres.

Turning from the basin of the Indus to that of the Ganges, the

commissioners appointed to report on the famine of 1896-1897 found that

in the country between the Ganges and the Jumna little was left to be

done beyond the completion of some distributary channels. The East India

Company's great work, the Ganges canal, constructed between 1840 and

1854 before there was a mile of railway open in India, still holds its

place unsurpassed among later irrigation work for boldness of design and

completeness of execution, a lasting monument to the genius of Sir Proby

Cautley, an officer of the Bengal Artillery, but a born engineer. Ever

since 1870 consideration has been given to projects for irrigating the

fertile province of Oudh by means of a great canal to be drawn from the

river Sarda. The water is there in abundance, the land is well adapted

for irrigation, but as there is a considerable rainfall, it is doubtful

whether the scheme would prove remunerative, and a large section of the

landowners have hitherto opposed it, as likely to waterlog the country.

Among the four protective works of irrigation which were said above to

have irrigated 200,733 acres in 1896-1897, one of the most important is

the Betwa canal, in the parched district of Bundelkhand. This canal has

cost [R]x. 428,086, and causes an annual loss to the state in interest

and working expenses of about [R]x. 20,000. It irrigated, however, in

1896-1897 an area of 87,306 acres, raising crops valued at [R]x.

231,081, or half the cost of the canal, so it may be said to have

justified its construction. A similar canal from the river Ken in the

same district has been constructed. Proceeding farther east, we find

very satisfactory progress in the irrigation of southern Behar, effected

by the costly system of canals drawn from the river Sone. In 1877-1878

these canals irrigated 241,790 acres. Rapid progress was not expected

here, and 792,000 acres was calculated as being the maximum area that

could be covered with the water supply available. In the five years

preceding 1901-1902 the average irrigated area was 463,181 acres, and

during that year the area was 555,156 acres, the maximum ever attained.

The canal system of Orissa was never expected to be remunerative, since

in five years out of six the local rainfall is sufficient for the rice

crop. In 1878-1879 the area irrigated was 111,250 acres, and the outlay

up to date was [R]x. 1,750,000. In 1900-1901 the area was 203,540 acres,

the highest ever attained, and the capital outlay amounted to [R]x.

2,623,703. It should be mentioned in favour of these canals that

although the irrigation is not of yearly value, they supply very

important water communication through a province which, from its natural

configuration, is not likely to be soon intersected by railways. If,

moreover, such a famine were again to occur in Orissa as that of

1866-1867, there would be no doubt of the value of these fine canals.

In the Madras presidency and in Mysore irrigation has long assumed a

great importance, and the engineering works of the three great deltas of

the Godavari, Kistna and Cauvery, the outcome of the genius and

indefatigable enthusiasm of Sir Arthur Cotton, have always been quoted

as showing what a boon irrigation is to a country. In 1878 the total

area of irrigation in the Madras presidency amounted to about 5,000,000

acres. The irrigation of the eight productive systems was 1,680,178

acres, and the revenue [R]x. 739,778. In 1898 there were ten of these

systems, with an irrigation area, as shown by the accompanying table, of

2,685,915 acres, and a revenue of [R]x. 1,163,268:

+-----------------------+----------+----------+---------+----------+----------+-----------+

| | | | | | Capital |Percentage |

| Irrigation. | Area | Total | Total | Net | and | of Net |

| | Watered. | Revenue. | Expendi-| Revenue. | Indirect | Revenue |

| | | | ture. | | Charges. |to Capital.|

+-----------------------+----------+----------+---------+----------+----------+-----------+

| _Major Works._ | Acres. | [R]x. | [R]x. | [R]x. | [R]x. | |

| 1. Godavari Delta | 779,435 | 328,443 | 68,376 | 260,067 |1,297,807 | 19.15 |

| 2. Kistna Delta | 520,373 | 254,579 | 74,142 | 180,437 |1,319,166 | 13.18 |

| 3. Pennar Weir System | 70,464 | 28,160 | 5,937 | 23,123 | 189,919 | 7.59 |

| 4. Sangam System | 76,277 | 32,627 | 7,037 | 25,590 | 385,601 | 3.68 |

| 5. Kurnool Canal | 47,008 | 15,622 | 12,404 | 3,218 |2,171,740 | .15 |

| 6. Barur Tank System | 4,421 | 1,162 | 385 | 777 | 4,250 | 1.39 |

| 7. Cauvery Delta | 989,808 | 434,346 | 43,464 | 390,882 | 199,458 | 44.87 |

| 8. Srivaikuntam System| 41,668 | 19,349 | 4,680 | 14,669 | 147,192 | 5.45 |

| 9. Periyar Project | 89,143 | 37,526 | 10,751 | 26,775 | 852,914 | .27 |

|10. Rushikulya Canal | 67,318 | 11,454 | 3,678 | 7,776 | 464,423 | .54 |

| +----------+----------+---------+----------+----------+-----------+

| Total |2,685,915 |1,163,268 |229,954 | 933,314 |7,032,470 | 7.88 |

| | | | | | | |

| _Minor Works._ | | | | | | |

|23 Works for which | | | | | | |

| Capital and Revenue | | | | | | |

| Accounts are kept | 535,813 | 200,558 | 34,655 | 165,903 |1,693,878 | 4.44 |

|Minor Works for which | | | | | | |

| such Accounts are | | | | | | |

| not kept |3,131,009 | 830,175 |193,295 | 636,880 | .. | .. |

| +----------+----------+---------+----------+----------+-----------+

| Grand Total |6,352,737 |2,194,001 |457,904 |1,736,097 | .. | .. |

+-----------------------+----------+----------+---------+----------+----------+-----------+

In the three great deltas, and the small southern one that depends on

the Srivaikuntam weir over the river Tumbraparni, extension and

improvement works have been carried on. The Sangam and Pennar systems

depend on two weirs on the river Pennar in the Nellore district, the

former about 18 m. above and the latter just below the town of Nellore.

The former irrigates on the left, the latter on the right bank of the

river. This district suffered severely in the famine of 1877-1878, and

the irrigation works were started in consequence. The Barur tank system

in the Salem district was also constructed after the famine of

1877-1878. As yet it has not fulfilled expectations. The Periyar scheme

has for its object both the addition of new irrigation and the

safeguarding of that which exists in the district of Madura, a plain

watered by means of a great number of shallow tanks drawing their supply

from a very uncertain river, the Vaigai. This river takes its rise on

the eastern slopes of the Ghat range of mountains, and just opposite to

it, on the western face of the range, is the source of the river

Periyar. The rainfall on the west very much exceeds that on the east,

and the Periyar used to find its way by a short torrent course to the

sea, rendering no service to mankind. Its upper waters are now stemmed

by a masonry dam 178 ft. high, forming a large lake, at the eastern end

of which is a tunnel 5700 ft. long, piercing the watershed and

discharging 1600 cub. ft. per second down the eastern side of the

mountains into the river Vaigai. No bolder or more original work of

irrigation has been carried out in India, and the credit of it is due to

Colonel J. Pennycuick, C.S.I. The dam and tunnel were works of unusual

difficulty. The country was roadless and uninhabited save by wild

beasts, and fever and cholera made sad havoc of the working parties; but

it was successfully accomplished. The last of those given in the table

above was not expected to be remunerative, but it should prove a

valuable protective against famine. The system consists of weirs over

the rivers Gulleri, Mahanadi and Rushikulya in the backward province of

Ganjam, south of Orissa. From these weirs flow canals altogether about

127 m. long, which, in connexion with two large reservoirs, are capable

of irrigating 120,000 acres. In 1901 the works, though incomplete,

already irrigated 67,318 acres.

In addition to all these great engineering systems, southern India is

covered with minor works of irrigation, some drawn from springs in the

sandy beds of rivers, some from the rainfall of 1/2 sq. m. ponded up in

a valley. In other cases tanks are fed from neighbouring streams, and

the greatest ingenuity is displayed in preventing the precious water

from going to waste.

Allusion has been already made to the canals of Sind. Elsewhere in the

Bombay presidency, in the Deccan and Gujarat, there are fewer facilities

for irrigation than in other parts of India. The rivers are generally of

uncertain volume. The cost of storage works is very great. The

population is backward, and the black soil is of a nature that in

ordinary years can raise fair crops of cotton, millet and maize without

artificial watering. Up to the end of 1896-1897 the capital spent on the

irrigation works of the Deccan and Gujarat was [R]x. 2,616,959. The area

irrigated that year was 262,830 acres. The most important works are the

Mutha and Nira canals in the Poona district.

In Upper Burma three productive irrigation works were planned at the

opening of the century--the Mandalay, the Shwebo, and the Mon canals, of

which the first was estimated to cost [R]x. 323,280, and to irrigate

72,000 acres. The area estimated from the whole three projects is

262,000 acres, situated in the only part of Burma that is considered

liable to famine.

In 1901, after years of disastrous drought and famine, the government of

India appointed a commission to examine throughout all India what could

be done by irrigation to alleviate the horrors of famine. Up to that

time it had been the principle of the government not to borrow money for

the execution of irrigation works unless there was a reasonable

expectation that within a few years they would give a return of 4 or 5%

on the capital outlay. In 1901 the government took larger views. It was

found that although some irrigation works (especially in the Bombay

Deccan) would never yield a direct return of 4 or 5%, still in a famine

year they might be the means of producing a crop which would go far to

do away with the necessity for spending enormous sums on famine relief.

In the Sholapur district of Bombay, for instance, about three years'

revenue was spent on relief during the famine of 1901. An expenditure of

ten years' revenue on irrigation works might have done away for all

future time with the necessity for the greater part of this outlay. The

Irrigation Commission of 1901-1903 published a very exhaustive report

after a careful study of every part of India. While emphatically

asserting that irrigation alone could never prevent famine, they

recommended an outlay of L45,000,000 spread over a period of 25 years.

See also _Annual Reports Irrigation Department Local Governments of

India_; _Reports of the Indian Famine Commissions of 1878, 1898 and

1901_; Sir Hanbury Brown, _Irrigation, its Principles and Practice_

(London, 1907).

VI. _United States._--At the opening of the 20th century, during Mr

Roosevelt's presidency, the new "Conservation" policy (i.e.

conservation of natural resources by federal initiative and control), to

which he gave so much impetus and encouragement, brought the extension

of irrigation works in the United States to the front in American

statecraft (see Vrooman, _Mr Roosevelt, Dynamic Geographer_, 1909).

Though the carrying out of this policy on a large scale was hampered by

many difficulties, the subject was made definitely one of national

importance.

On account of the aridity of the climate throughout the greater part of

the western third of the United States, the practice of agriculture is

dependent upon an artificial supply of water. On most of the country

west of the 97th meridian and extending to the Pacific Ocean less than

20 in. of rain falls each year. The most notable exceptions are in the

case of a narrow strip west of the Cascade Range and of some of the

higher mountain masses. In ordinary years the climate is too dry for

successful cultivation of the field crops, although under favourable

conditions of soil and cultivation there are certain areas where cereals

are grown by what is known as "dry farming." The progress in irrigation

up to the end of the 19th century was spasmodic but on the whole steady.

The eleventh census of the United States, 1890, showed that 3,564,416

acres were irrigated in 1889. This included only the lands from which

crops were produced. Besides this, there were probably 10 million acres

under irrigation systems constructed in whole or in part. In 1899 the

irrigated area in the arid states and territories was more than twice as

great as in 1889, the acreage being as follows:--

Arizona 185,936

California 1,445,872

Colorado 1,611,271

Idaho 602,568

Montana 951,154

Nevada 504,168

New Mexico 203,893

Oregon 388,310

Utah 629,293

Washington 135,470

Wyoming 605,878

---------

Total 7,263,813

In addition to the area above given, in 1899, 273,117 acres were under

irrigation in the semi-arid region, east of the states above mentioned

and including portions of the states of North and South Dakota,

Nebraska, Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma. The greater part of these lands

was irrigated by canals or ditches built by individuals acting singly or

in co-operation with their neighbours, or by corporations. The national

and state governments had not built any works of reclamation excepting

where the federal government, through the Indian department, had

constructed irrigation ditches for Indian tribes, notably the Crow

Indians of Montana. A few of the state governments, such, for example,

as Colorado, had built small reservoirs or portions of canals from

internal improvement funds.

The construction of irrigation canals and ditches was for the most part

brought about by farmers joining to plough out or dig ditches from the

rivers, descending on a gentle grade. Some of the corporations

constructing works for the sale of water built structures of notable

size, such, for example, as the Sweet-water and Hemet dams of southern

California, the Bear river canal of Utah, and the Arizona canal, taking

water from Salt river, Arizona. The cost of bringing water to the land

averaged about $8 per acre where the ordinary ditches were built. The

owners of extensive works were charged from $12 to $20 per acre and

upwards for so-called "water rights," or the privilege to take water

from the canal, this covering cost of construction. Besides the first

cost of construction, the irrigator was usually called upon to pay

annually a certain amount for maintenance, which might often be worked

out by labour on the canal. The cost ranged from 50 cents to $1 per

acre; or, with incorporated companies, from $1.50 to $2.50 per acre and

upwards. The largest expense for water rights and for annual maintenance

was incurred in southern California, where the character of the crops,

such as citrus fruits, and the scarcity of the water make possible

expensive construction and heavy charges. The legal expense for the

maintenance of water rights was often large because of the interminable

suits brought during the times of water scarcity. The laws regarding

water in most of the arid states were indefinite or contradictory, being

based partly on the common law regarding riparian rights, and partly

upon the Spanish law allowing diversion of water from natural streams.

Few fundamental principles were established, except in the case of the

state of Wyoming, where an official was charged with the duty of

ascertaining the amount of water in the streams and apportioning this to

the claimants in the order of their priority of appropriation for

beneficial use.

It may be said that, up to the year 1900, irrigation progressed to such

an extent that there remained few ordinary localities where water could

not be easily or cheaply diverted from creeks and rivers for the

cultivation of farms. The claims for the available supply from small

streams, however, exceeded the water to be had in the latter part of the

irrigating season. There remained large rivers and opportunities for

water storage which could be brought under irrigation at considerable

expense. The large canals and reservoirs built by corporations had

rarely been successful from a financial standpoint, and irrigation

construction during the latter part of the decade 1890-1899 was

relatively small. Owing to the difficulty and expense of securing water

from running streams by gravity systems, a great variety of methods were

developed of pumping water by windmills, gasoline or hot-air engines,

and steam. Ordinary reciprocating pumps were commonly employed, and also

air lifts and similar devices for raising great quantities of water to a

height of from 20 to 50 ft. For greater depths the cost was usually

prohibitive. Throughout the Great Plains region, east of the Rocky

Mountains, and in the broad valleys to the west, windmills were

extensively used, each pumping water for from 1 to 5 acres of cultivated

ground. In a few localities, notably in South Dakota, the Yakima valley

of Washington, San Joaquin, and San Bernardino valleys of California,

San Luis valley of Colorado, and Utah valley of Utah, water from

artesian wells was also used for the irrigation of from 1 to 160 acres.

The total acreage supplied by such means was probably less than 1% of

that watered by gravity systems.

The development of irrigation was in part retarded by the improper or

wasteful use of water. On permeable soils, especially those of the

terrace lands along the valleys, the soluble salts commonly known as

alkali were gradually leached out and carried by the percolating waters

towards the lower lands, where, reaching the surface, the alkali was

left as a glistening crust or as pools of inky blackness. Farms adjacent

to the rivers were for a time increased in richness by the alkaline

salts, which in diffuse form might be valuable plant foods, and then

suddenly become valueless when the concentration of alkali had reached a

degree beyond that which the ordinary plants would endure.

The situation as regards the further progress of irrigation on a large

scale was however dominated in the early years of the 20th century by

the new Conservation policy. Mr Roosevelt brought the whole subject

before Congress in his message of the 3rd of December 1901, and thereby

started what seemed likely to be a new sphere of Federal initiative and

control. After referring to the effects of forests (see FORESTS AND

FORESTRY) on water-supply, he went on as follows:--

"The forests alone cannot fully regulate and conserve the waters of

the arid regions. Great storage works are necessary to equalize the

flow of the streams and to save the flood waters. Their construction

has been conclusively shown to be an undertaking too vast for private

effort. Nor can it be best accomplished by the individual states

acting alone.

"Far-reaching interstate problems are involved, and the resources of

single states would often be inadequate. It is properly a national

function, at least in some of its features. It is as right for the

National Government to make the streams and rivers of the arid regions

useful by engineering works for water storage, as to make useful the

rivers and harbours of the humid regions by engineering works of

another kind. The storing of the floods in reservoirs at the

headquarters of our rivers is but an enlargement of our present policy

of river control, under which levees are built on the lower reaches

of the same streams.

"The government should construct and maintain these reservoirs as it

does other public works. Where their purpose is to regulate the flow

of streams, the water should be turned freely into the channels in the

dry season, to take the same course under the same laws as the natural

flow.

"The reclamation of the unsettled arid public lands presents a

different problem. Here it is not enough to regulate the flow of

streams. The object of the government is to dispose of the land to

settlers who will build homes upon it. To accomplish the object water

must be brought within their reach.

"The reclamation and settlement of the arid lands will enrich every

portion of our country, just as the settlement of the Ohio and

Mississippi valleys brought prosperity to the Atlantic States. The

increased demand for manufactured articles will stimulate industrial

production, while wider home markets and the trade of Asia will

consume the larger food supplies and effectually prevent Western

competition with Eastern agriculture. Indeed, the products of

irrigation will be consumed chiefly in upbuilding local centres of

mining and other industries, which would otherwise not come into

existence at all. Our people as a whole will profit, for successful

home-making is but another name for the upbuilding of the nation."

In 1902, by Act of Congress, a "reclamation fund" was created from

moneys received from the sale of public lands; it was to be used under a

"Reclamation Service" (part of the Department of the Interior) for the

reclamation of arid lands. The "Truckee-Carson project" for irrigation

in Nevada was immediately begun. About thirty other government projects

were taken in hand under the new Reclamation Service, in some cases

involving highly interesting engineering problems, as in the Uncompahgre

Project in Colorado. Here the Uncompahgre and Gunnison rivers flowed

parallel, about 10 m. apart, with a mountain range 2000 ft. high between

them. The Uncompahgre, with only a small amount of water, flowed through

a broad and fertile valley containing several hundred thousand acres of

cultivable soil. The Gunnison, with far more water, flowed through a

canyon with very little land. The problem was to get the water from the

Gunnison over the mountain range into the Uncompahgre valley; and a

tunnel, 6 m. long, was cut through, resulting in 1909 in 148,000 acres

of land being irrigated and thrown open to settlers. Similarly, near

Yuma in Arizona, a project was undertaken for carrying the waters of the

main canal on the California side under the Colorado river by a siphon.

In the report for 1907 of the Reclamation Service it was stated that it

had dug 1881 m. of canals, some carrying whole rivers, like the Truckee

river in Nevada and the North Platte in Wyoming, and had erected 281

large structures, including the great dams in Nevada and the Minidoka

dam (80 ft. high and 650 ft. long) in Idaho. As the result of the

operations eight new towns had been established, 100 m. of branch

railroads constructed, and 14,000 people settled in what had been the

desert.

A White House conference of governors of states was held at Washington

in May 1909, which drew up a "declaration of principles" for the

conservation of natural resources, recommending the appointment of a

commission by each state to co-operate with one another and with the

Federal government; and by the end of the year thirty-six states had

appointed Conservation committees. Thus, in the first decade of the

20th century a great advance had been made in the way in which the

whole problem was being viewed in America, though the very immensity

of the problem of bringing the Federal power to bear on operations on

so vast a scale, involving the limitation of private land speculation

in important areas, still presented political difficulties of

considerable magnitude.

IRULAS ("Benighted ones," from Tamil, _iral_, "darkness"), a

semi-Hinduized forest-tribe of southern India, who are found mainly in

North Arcot, Chingleput, South Arcot, Trichinopoly, and the Malabar

Wynaad. The typical Irulas of the Nilgiris live a wild life on the lower

slopes of those hills. At the 1901 census this branch of the Irulas

numbered 1915, while the total of so-called Irulas was returned at

86,087.

See J. W. Breeks, _Primitive Tribes of the Nilgiris_ (1873); _Nilgiri

Manual_, i. 214-217; _North Arcot Manual_, i. 248-249.

IRUN, a frontier town of northern Spain, in the province of Guipuzcoa,

on the left bank of the river Bidassoa, opposite the French village of

Hendaye. Pop. (1900) 9912. Irun is the northern terminus of the Spanish

Northern railway, and a thriving industrial town, with ironworks,

tan-yards, potteries and paper mills. Its principal buildings are the

fine Renaissance parish church and the fortress-like 17th-century town

hall. It derives its prosperity from the fact that it is the most

important custom-house in Spain for the overland trade with the rest of

Europe. Irun is also on the chief highway for travellers and mails. It

is the terminus of some important narrow-gauge mining railways and steam

tramways, which place it in communication with the mining districts of

Guipuzcoa and Navarre, and with the valuable oak, pine and beech forests

of both provinces. There are hot mineral springs in the town.

IRVINE, a royal, municipal and police burgh, and seaport of Ayrshire,

Scotland. Pop. (1901) 9607. It is situated on the north bank of the

estuary of the Irvine, 29(1/2) m. S.W. of Glasgow by the Caledonian

railway, with a station also on the Glasgow & South Western railway. It

is connected with the suburb of Fullarton on the south side of the river

by a stone bridge, which was built in 1746 and widened in 1827.

Alexander II. granted it a charter, which was confirmed by Robert Bruce.

Towards the end of the 17th century it was reckoned the third shipping

port in Scotland (Port Glasgow and Leith being the leaders), and though

its importance in this respect declined owing to the partial silting-up

of the harbour, its water-borne trade revived after 1875, the sandy bar

having been removed and the wharfage extended and improved. The public

buildings include the town hall, academy (1814) and fever hospital. The

principal historical remains are the square tower of Stanecastle and the

ancient Seagate Castle, which contains some good specimens of Norman

architecture. The industries include engine-making, shipbuilding, iron-

and brass-founding, the manufacture of chemicals, brewing and

soap-making. Irvine unites with Ayr, Campbeltown, Inveraray and Oban in

sending one member to parliament. The exports consist principally of

coal, iron and chemical products, and the imports of grain, timber,

limestone, ores and general produce. At DREGHORN, 2 m. to the S.E. (pop.

1155) coal and iron are worked.

IRVING, EDWARD (1792-1834), Scottish church divine, generally regarded

as the founder of the "Catholic Apostolic Church" (q.v.), was born at

Annan, Dumfriesshire, on the 4th of August 1792. By his father's side,

who followed the occupation of a tanner, he was descended from a family

long known in the district, and the purity of whose Scottish lineage had

been tinged by alliance with French Protestant refugees; but it was from

his mother's race, the Lowthers, farmers or small proprietors in

Annandale, that he seems to have derived the most distinctive features

of his personality. The first stage of his education was passed at a

school kept by "Peggy Paine," a relation of the well-known author of the

_Age of Reason_, after which he entered the Annan academy, taught by Mr

Adam Hope, of whom there is a graphic sketch in the _Reminiscences_ of

Thomas Carlyle. At the age of thirteen he entered the university of

Edinburgh. In 1809 he graduated M.A.; and in 1810, on the recommendation

of Sir John Leslie, he was chosen master of an academy newly established

at Haddington, where he became the tutor of Jane Welsh, afterwards

famous as Mrs Carlyle. He became engaged in 1812 to Isabella Martin,

whom in 1823 he married; but it may be at once stated here that

meanwhile he gradually fell in love with Jane Welsh, and she with him.

He tried to get out of his engagement with Miss Martin, but was

prevented by her family. If he had married Miss Welsh, his life, as well

as hers, would have been very different. It was Irving who in 1821

introduced Carlyle to her.

His appointment at Haddington he exchanged for a similar one at

Kirkcaldy in 1812. Completing his divinity studies by a series of

partial sessions, he was "licensed" to preach in June 1815, but

continued to discharge his scholastic duties for three years. He devoted

his leisure, not only to mathematical and physical science, but to a

course of reading in English literature, his bias towards the antique in

sentiment and style being strengthened by a perusal of the older

classics, among whom Richard Hooker was his favourite author. At the

same time his love of the marvellous found gratification in the wonders

of the _Arabian Nights_, and it is further characteristically related

of him that he used to carry continually in his waistcoat pocket a

miniature copy of _Ossian_, passages from which he frequently recited

with "sonorous elocution and vehement gesticulation."

In the summer of 1818 he resigned his mastership, and, in order to

increase the probability of obtaining a permanent appointment in the

church, took up his residence in Edinburgh. Although his exceptional

method of address seems to have gained him the qualified approval of

certain dignitaries of the church, the prospect of his obtaining a

settled charge seemed as remote as ever, and he was meditating a

missionary tour in Persia when his departure was arrested by steps taken

by Dr Chalmers, which, after considerable delay, resulted, in October

1819, in Irving being appointed his assistant and missionary in St

John's parish, Glasgow. Except in the case of a select few, Irving's

preaching awakened little interest among the congregation of Chalmers,

Chalmers himself, with no partiality for its bravuras and flourishes,

comparing it to "Italian music, appreciated only by connoisseurs"; but

as a missionary among the poorer classes he wielded an influence that

was altogether unique. The benediction "Peace be to this house," with

which, in accordance with apostolic usage, he greeted every dwelling he

entered, was not inappropriate to his figure and aspect, and it is said

"took the people's attention wonderfully," the more especially after the

magic of his personality found opportunity to reveal itself in close and

homely intercourse. This half-success in a subordinate sphere was,

however, so far from coinciding with his aspirations that he had again,

in the winter of 1821, begun to turn his attention towards missionary

labour in the East, when the possibility of fulfilling the dream of his

life was suddenly revealed to him by an invitation from the Caledonian

church, Hatton Garden, London, to "make trial and proof" of his gifts

before the "remnant of the congregation which held together." Over that

charge he was ordained in July 1822. Some years previously he had

expressed his conviction that "one of the chief needs of the age was to

make inroad after the alien, to bring in the votaries of fashion, of

literature, of sentiment, of policy and of rank, who are content in

their several idolatries to do without piety to God and love to Him whom

He hath sent"; and, with an abruptness which must have produced on him

at first an effect almost astounding, he now had the satisfaction of

beholding these various votaries thronging to hear from his lips the

words of wisdom which would deliver them from their several idolatries

and remodel their lives according to the fashion of apostolic times.

This sudden leap into popularity seems to have been occasioned in

connexion with a veiled allusion to Irving's striking eloquence made in

the House of Commons by Canning, who had been induced to attend his

church from admiration of an expression in one of his prayers, quoted to

him by Sir James Mackintosh. His commanding stature, the symmetry of his

form, the dark and melancholy beauty of his countenance, rather rendered

piquant than impaired by an obliquity of vision, produced an imposing

impression even before his deep and powerful voice had given utterance

to its melodious thunders; and harsh and superficial half-truths

enunciated with surpassing ease and grace of gesture, and not only with

an air of absolute conviction but with the authority of a prophetic

messenger, in tones whose magical fascination was inspired by an

earnestness beyond all imitation of art, acquired a plausibility and

importance which, at least while the orator spoke, made his audience

entirely forgetful of their preconceived objections against them. The

subject-matter of his orations, and his peculiar treatment of his

themes, no doubt also, at least at first, constituted a considerable

part of his attractive influence. He had specially prepared himself, as

he thought, for "teaching imaginative men, and political men, and legal

men, and scientific men who bear the world in hand"; and he did not

attempt to win their attention to abstract and worn-out theological

arguments, but discussed the opinions, the poetry, the politics, the

manners and customs of the time, and this not with philosophical

comprehensiveness, not in terms of warm eulogy or measured blame, but

of severe satire varied by fierce denunciation, and with a specific

minuteness which was concerned primarily with individuals. A fire of

criticism from pamphlets, newspapers and reviews opened on his volume of

_Orations_, published in 1823; but the excitement produced was merely

superficial and essentially evanescent. Though cherishing a strong

antipathy to the received ecclesiastical formulas, Irving's great aim

was to revive the antique style of thought and sentiment which had

hardened into these formulas, and by this means to supplant the new

influences, the accidental and temporary moral shortcomings of which he

detected with instinctive certainty, but whose profound and real

tendencies were utterly beyond the reach of his conjecture. Being thus

radically at variance with the main current of the thought of his time,

the failure of the commission he had undertaken was sooner or later

inevitable; and shortly after the opening of his new church in Regent

Square in 1827, he found that "fashion had taken its departure," and the

church, "though always well filled," was "no longer crowded." By this

desertion his self-esteem, one of his strongest passions, though

curiously united with singular sincerity and humility, was doubtless

hurt to the quick; but the wound inflicted was of a deeper and deadlier

kind, for it confirmed him finally in his despair of the world's gradual

amelioration, and established his tendency towards supernaturalism.

For years the subject of prophecy had occupied much of his thoughts, and

his belief in the near approach of the second advent had received such

wonderful corroboration by the perusal of the work of a Jesuit priest,

writing under the assumed Jewish name of Juan Josafat Ben-Ezra, that in

1827 he published a translation of it, accompanied with an eloquent

preface. Probably the religious opinions of Irving, originally in some

respects more catholic and truer to human nature than generally

prevailed in ecclesiastical circles, had gained breadth and

comprehensiveness from his intercourse with Coleridge, but gradually his

chief interest in Coleridge's philosophy centred round that which was

mystical and obscure, and to it in all likelihood may be traced his

initiation into the doctrine of millenarianism. The first stage of his

later development, which resulted in the establishment of the

"Irvingite" or "Holy Catholic Apostolic Church," in 1832, was associated

with conferences at his friend Henry Drummond's seat at Albury

concerning unfulfilled prophecy, followed by an almost exclusive study

of the prophetical books and especially of the Apocalypse, and by

several series of sermons on prophecy both in London and the provinces,

his apocalyptic lectures in 1828 more than crowding the largest churches

of Edinburgh in the early summer mornings. In 1830, however, there was

opened up to his ardent imagination a new vista into spiritual things, a

new hope for the age in which he lived, by the seeming actual revival in

a remote corner of Scotland of those apostolic gifts of prophecy and

healing which he had already in 1828 persuaded himself had only been

kept in abeyance by the absence of faith. At once he welcomed the new

"power" with an unquestioning evidence which could be shaken by neither

the remonstrances or desertion of his dearest friends, the recantation

of some of the principal agents of the "gifts," his own declension into

a comparatively subordinate position, the meagre and barren results of

the manifestations, nor their general rejection both by the church and

the world. His excommunication by the presbytery of London, in 1830, for

publishing his doctrines regarding the humanity of Jesus Christ, and the

condemnation of these opinions by the General Assembly of the Church of

Scotland in the following year, were secondary episodes which only

affected the main issue of his career in so far as they tended still

further to isolate him from the sympathy of the church; but the

"irregularities" connected with the manifestation of the "gifts"

gradually estranged the majority of his own congregation, and on the

complaint of the trustees to the presbytery of London, whose authority

they had formerly rejected, he was declared unfit to remain the minister

of the National Scotch Church of Regent Square. After he and those who

adhered to him (describing themselves as of the Holy Catholic Apostolic

Church) had in 1832 removed to a new building in Newman Street, he was

in March 1833 deposed from the ministry of the Church of Scotland by the

presbytery of Annan on the original charge of heresy. With the sanction

of the "power" he was now after some delay reordained "chief pastor of

the church assembled in Newman Street," but unremitting labours and

ceaseless spiritual excitement soon completely exhausted the springs of

his vital energy. He died, worn out and wasted with labour and absorbing

care, while still in the prime of life, on the 7th of December 1834.

The writings of Edward Irving published during his lifetime were _For

the Oracles of God, Four Orations_ (1823); _For Judgment to come_

(1823); _Babylon and Infidelity foredoomed_ (1826); _Sermons_, &c. (3

vols., 1828); _Exposition of the Book of Revelation_ (1831); an

introduction to a translation of Ben-Ezra; and an introduction to

Horne's _Commentary on the Psalms_. His collected works were published

in 5 volumes, edited by Gavin Carlyle. See also the article CATHOLIC

APOSTOLIC CHURCH.

The _Life of Edward Irving_, by Mrs Oliphant, appeared in 1862 in 2

vols. Among a large number of biographies published previously, that

by Washington Wilks (1854) has some merit. See also Hazlitt's _Spirit

of the Age_; Coleridge's _Notes on English Divines_; Carlyle's

_Miscellanies_, and Carlyle's _Reminiscences_, vol. i. (1881).

IRVING, SIR HENRY (1838-1905), English actor, whose original name was

John Brodribb, was born at Keinton-Mandeville, Somerset, on the 6th of

February 1838. After a few years' schooling he became a clerk to a firm

of East India merchants in London, but he soon gave up a commercial

career and started as an actor. On the 29th of September 1856 he made

his first appearance at Sunderland as Gaston, duke of Orleans, in Bulwer

Lytton's _Richelieu_, billed as Henry Irving. This name he eventually

assumed by royal licence. For ten years he went through an arduous

training in various provincial stock companies, acting in more than five

hundred parts. By degrees his ability gained recognition, and in 1866 he

obtained an engagement at the St James's Theatre, London, to play

Doricourt in _The Belle's Stratagem_. A year later he joined the company

of the newly-opened Queen's Theatre, where he acted with Charles

Wyndham, J. L. Toole, Lionel Brough, John Clayton, Mr and Mrs Alfred

Wigan, Ellen Terry and Nelly Farren. This was followed by short

engagements at the Haymarket, Drury Lane and Gaiety. At last he made his

first conspicuous success as Digby Grant in James Albery's _The Two

Roses_, which was produced at the Vaudeville on the 4th of June 1870 and

ran for 300 nights. In 1871 he began his association with the Lyceum

Theatre by an engagement under Bateman's management. The fortunes of the

house were at a low ebb when the tide was turned by Irving's immediate

success as Mathias in _The Bells_, a version of Erckmann-Chatrian's _Le

Juif Polonais_ by Leopold Lewis. The play ran for 150 nights. With Miss

Bateman, Irving was seen in W. G. Wills's _Charles I._ and _Eugene

Aram_, in _Richelieu_, and in 1874 in _Hamlet_. The unconventionality of

this last performance, during a run of 200 nights, aroused keen

discussion, and singled him out as the most interesting English actor of

his day. In 1875, still with Miss Bateman, he was seen as Macbeth; in

1876 as Othello, and as Philip in Tennyson's _Queen Mary_; in 1877 in

_Richard III._ and _The Lyons Mail_.

In 1878 Irving opened the Lyceum under his own management. With Ellen

Terry as Ophelia and Portia, he revived _Hamlet_ and produced _The

Merchant of Venice_ (1879). His Shylock was as much discussed as his

Hamlet had been, the dignity with which he invested the Jew marking a

departure from the traditional interpretation of the role, and pleasing

some as much as it offended others. After the production of Tennyson's

_The Cup_, a revival of _Othello_ (in which Irving played Iago to the

Othello of Edwin Booth) and of _Romeo and Juliet_, there began a period

at the Lyceum which had a potent effect on the English stage. The Lyceum

stage management, and the brilliancy of its productions in scenery,

dressing and accessories, were revelations in the art of

_mise-en-scene_. _Much Ado about Nothing_ (1882) was followed by

_Twelfth Night_ (1884), _Olivia_--an adaptation of Goldsmith's _Vicar of

Wakefield_ by W. G. Wills (1885); _Faust_ (1886); _Macbeth_ (1888): _The

Dead Heart_, by Watts Phillips (1889); and _Ravenswood_--Herman

Merivale's dramatic version of Scott's _Bride of Lammermoor_ (1890).

Fine assumptions in 1892 of the characters of Wolsey in _Henry VIII._

and of King Lear were followed in 1893 by a striking and dignified

performance of Becket in Tennyson's play of that name. During these

years too, Irving, with the whole Lyceum company, paid several visits to

America, which met with conspicuous success, and were repeated in

succeeding years. The chief remaining novelties at the Lyceum during

Irving's sole managership (the theatre passed, at the beginning of 1899,

into the hands of a limited liability company) were Comyns Carr's _King

Arthur_ in 1895; _Cymbeline_, in which Irving played Iachimo, in 1896;

Sardou's _Madame Sans-Gene_ in 1897; _Peter the Great_, a play by

Laurence Irving, the actor's second son, in 1898; and Conan Doyle's

_Waterloo_ (1894). The new _regime_ at the Lyceum was signalized by the

production of Sardou's _Robespierre_ in 1899, in which Irving reappeared

after a serious illness, and in 1901 by an elaborate revival of

_Coriolanus_. Irving's only subsequent production in London was Sardou's

_Dante_ (1903), a vast spectacular drama, staged at Drury Lane. He died

"on tour" at Bradford on the 13th of October 1905, and was buried in

Westminster Abbey.

Both on and off the stage Irving always maintained a high ideal of his

profession, and in 1895 he received the honour of knighthood, the first

ever accorded an actor. He was also the recipient of honorary degrees

from the universities of Dublin, Cambridge and Glasgow. His acting,

apart from his genius as a presenter of plays, divided criticism,

opinions differing as to the extent to which his mannerisms of voice and

deportment interfered with or assisted the expression of his ideas. So

strongly marked a personality as his could not help giving its own

colouring to whatever part he might assume, but the richness and

originality of this colouring at its best cannot be denied, any more

than the spirit and intellect which characterized his renderings. At the

least, extraordinary versatility must be conceded to an actor who could

satisfy exacting audiences in roles so widely different as Digby Grant

and Louis XI., Richard III. and Becket, Benedick and Shylock, Mathias

and Dr Primrose.

Sir Henry Irving had two sons, Harry Brodribb (b. 1870) and Laurence (b.

1872). They were educated for other walks of life, the former for the

bar, and the latter for the diplomatic service; but both turned to the

stage, and the elder, who had already established himself as the most

prominent of the younger English actors at the time of his father's

death, went into management on his own account.

IRVING, WASHINGTON (1783-1859), American man of letters, was born at New

York on the 3rd of April 1783. Both his parents were immigrants from

Great Britain, his father, originally an officer in the merchant

service, but at the time of Irving's birth a considerable merchant,

having come from the Orkneys, and his mother from Falmouth. Irving was

intended for the legal profession, but his studies were interrupted by

an illness necessitating a voyage to Europe, in the course of which he

proceeded as far as Rome, and made the acquaintance of Washington

Allston. He was called to the bar upon his return, but made little

effort to practise, preferring to amuse himself with literary ventures.

The first of these of any importance, a satirical miscellany entitled

_Salmagundi, or the Whim-Whams and Opinions of Launcelot Langstaff and

others_, written in conjunction with his brother William and J. K.

Paulding, gave ample proof of his talents as a humorist. These were

still more conspicuously displayed in his next attempt, _A History of

New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch

Dynasty_, by "Diedrich Knickerbocker" (2 vols., New York, 1809). The

satire of _Salmagundi_ had been principally local, and the original

design of "Knickerbocker's" _History_ was only to burlesque a

pretentious disquisition on the history of the city in a guidebook by Dr

Samuel Mitchell. The idea expanded as Irving proceeded, and he ended by

not merely satirizing the pedantry of local antiquaries, but by creating

a distinct literary type out of the solid Dutch burgher whose phlegm had

long been an object of ridicule to the mercurial Americans. Though far

from the most finished of Irving's productions, "Knickerbocker"

manifests the most original power, and is the most genuinely national in

its quaintness and drollery. The very tardiness and prolixity of the

story are skilfully made to heighten the humorous effect.

Upon the death of his father, Irving had become a sleeping partner in

his brother's commercial house, a branch of which was established at

Liverpool. This, combined with the restoration of peace, induced him to

visit England in 1815, when he found the stability of the firm seriously

compromised. After some years of ineffectual struggle it became

bankrupt. This misfortune compelled Irving to resume his pen as a means

of subsistence. His reputation had preceded him to England, and the

curiosity naturally excited by the then unwonted apparition of a

successful American author procured him admission into the highest

literary circles, where his popularity was ensured by his amiable temper

and polished manners. As an American, moreover, he stood aloof from the

political and literary disputes which then divided England. Campbell,

Jeffrey, Moore, Scott, were counted among his friends, and the

last-named zealously recommended him to the publisher Murray, who, after

at first refusing, consented (1820) to bring out _The Sketch Book of

Geoffrey Crayon, Gent._ (7 pts., New York, 1819-1820). The most

interesting part of this work is the description of an English

Christmas, which displays a delicate humour not unworthy of the writer's

evident model Addison. Some stories and sketches on American themes

contribute to give it variety; of these Rip van Winkle is the most

remarkable. It speedily obtained the greatest success on both sides of

the Atlantic. _Bracebridge Hall, or the Humourists_ (2 vols., New York),

a work purely English in subject, followed in 1822, and showed to what

account the American observer had turned his experience of English

country life. The humour is, nevertheless, much more English than

American. _Tales of a Traveller_ (4 pts.) appeared in 1824 at

Philadelphia, and Irving, now in comfortable circumstances, determined

to enlarge his sphere of observation by a journey on the continent.

After a long course of travel he settled down at Madrid in the house of

the American consul Rich. His intention at the time was to translate the

_Coleccion de los Viajes y Descubrimientos_ (Madrid, 1825-1837) of

Martin Fernandez de Navarrete; finding, however, that this was rather a

collection of valuable materials than a systematic biography, he

determined to compose a biography of his own by its assistance,

supplemented by independent researches in the Spanish archives. His

_History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus_ (London, 4

vols.) appeared in 1828, and obtained a merited success. _The Voyages

and Discoveries of the Companions of Columbus_ (Philadelphia, 1831)

followed; and a prolonged residence in the south of Spain gave Irving

materials for two highly picturesque books, _A Chronicle of the Conquest

of Granada from the MSS. of_ [an imaginary] _Fray Antonio Agapida_ (2

vols., Philadelphia, 1829), and _The Alhambra: a series of tales and

sketches of the Moors and Spaniards_ (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1832).

Previous to their appearance he had been appointed secretary to the

embassy at London, an office as purely complimentary to his literary

ability as the legal degree which he about the same time received from

the university of Oxford.

Returning to the United States in 1832, after seventeen years' absence,

he found his name a household word, and himself universally honoured as

the first American who had won for his country recognition on equal

terms in the literary republic. After the rush of fetes and public

compliments had subsided, he undertook a tour in the western prairies,

and returning to the neighbourhood of New York built for himself a

delightful retreat on the Hudson, to which he gave the name of

"Sunnyside." His acquaintance with the New York millionaire John Jacob

Astor prompted his next important work--_Astoria_ (2 vols.,

Philadelphia, 1836), a history of the fur-trading settlement founded by

Astor in Oregon, deduced with singular literary ability from dry

commercial records, and, without laboured attempts at word-painting,

evincing a remarkable faculty for bringing scenes and incidents vividly

before the eye. _The Adventures of Captain Bonneville_ (London and

Philadelphia, 1837), based upon the unpublished memoirs of a veteran

explorer, was another work of the same class. In 1842 Irving was

appointed ambassador to Spain. He spent four years in the country,

without this time turning his residence to literary account; and it was

not until two years after his return that Forster's life of Goldsmith,

by reminding him of a slight essay of his own which he now thought too

imperfect by comparison to be included among his collected writings,

stimulated him to the production of his _Life of Oliver Goldsmith, with

Selections from his Writings_ (2 vols., New York, 1849). Without

pretensions to original research, the book displays an admirable talent

for employing existing material to the best effect. The same may be said

of _The Lives of Mahomet and his Successors_ (New York, 2 vols.,

1849-1850). Here as elsewhere Irving correctly discriminated the

biographer's province from the historian's, and leaving the

philosophical investigation of cause and effect to writers of Gibbon's

calibre, applied himself to represent the picturesque features of the

age as embodied in the actions and utterances of its most characteristic

representatives. His last days were devoted to his _Life of George

Washington_ (5 vols., 1855-1859, New York and London), undertaken in an

enthusiastic spirit, but which the author found exhausting and his

readers tame. His genius required a more poetical theme, and indeed the

biographer of Washington must be at least a potential soldier and

statesman. Irving just lived to complete this work, dying of heart

disease at Sunnyside, on the 28th of November 1859.

Although one of the chief ornaments of American literature, Irving is

not characteristically American. But he is one of the few authors of his

period who really manifest traces of a vein of national peculiarity

which might under other circumstances have been productive.

"Knickerbocker's" _History of New York_, although the air of mock

solemnity which constitutes the staple of its humour is peculiar to no

literature, manifests nevertheless a power of reproducing a distinct

national type. Had circumstances taken Irving to the West, and placed

him amid a society teeming with quaint and genial eccentricity, he might

possibly have been the first Western humorist, and his humour might have

gained in depth and richness. In England, on the other hand, everything

encouraged his natural fastidiousness; he became a refined writer, but

by no means a robust one. His biographies bear the stamp of genuine

artistic intelligence, equally remote from compilation and disquisition.

In execution they are almost faultless; the narrative is easy, the style

pellucid, and the writer's judgment nearly always in accordance with the

general verdict of history. Without ostentation or affectation, he was

exquisite in all things, a mirror of loyalty, courtesy and good taste in

all his literary connexions, and exemplary in all the relations of

domestic life. He never married, remaining true to the memory of an

early attachment blighted by death.

The principal edition of Irving's works is the "Geoffrey Crayon,"

published at New York in 1880 in 26 vols. His _Life and Letters_ was

published by his nephew Pierre M. Irving (London, 1862-1864, 4 vols.;

German abridgment by Adolf Laun, Berlin, 1870, 2 vols.) There is a

good deal of miscellaneous information in a compilation entitled

_Irvingiana_ (New York, 1860); and W. C. Bryant's memorial oration,

though somewhat too uniformly laudatory, may be consulted with

advantage. It was republished in _Studies of Irving_ (1880) along with

C. Dudley Warner's introduction to the "Geoffrey Crayon" edition, and

Mr G. P. Putnam's personal reminiscences of Irving, which originally

appeared in the _Atlantic Monthly_. See also _Washington Irving_

(1881), by C. D. Warner, in the "American Men of Letters" series; H.

R. Haweis, _American Humourists_ (London, 1883). (R. G.)

IRVINGTON, a town of Essex county, New Jersey, U.S.A., bordering on the

S.W. side of Newark. Pop. (1900) 5255, of whom 993 were foreign-born;

(1905) 7180; (1910) 11,877. Irvington is served by the Lehigh Valley

railroad and by electric railway to Newark. It is principally a

residential suburb of Newark, but it has a small smelter (for gold and

silver), and various manufactures, including textile working machinery,

measuring rules and artisans' tools. There are large strawberry farms

here. Irvington was settled near the close of the 17th century, and was

called Camptown until 1852, when the present name was adopted in honour

of Washington Irving. It was incorporated as a village in 1874, and as a

town in 1898.

ISAAC (Hebrew for "he laughs," on explanatory references to the name,

see ABRAHAM), the only child of Abraham and Sarah, was born when his

parents were respectively a hundred and ninety years of age (Gen. xvii.

17). Like his father, Isaac lived a nomadic pastoral life, but within

much narrower local limits, south of Beersheba (Gen. xxvi., on the

incidents here recorded, see ABIMELECH). After the death of his mother,

when he was forty years old, he married Rebekah the Aramaean, by whom

after twenty years of married life he became the father of Esau and

Jacob. He died at the age of one hundred and eighty.[1] "Isaac" is used

as a synonym for "Israel" by Amos (vii. 9, 16), who also bears witness

to the importance of Beersheba as a sanctuary. It was in this district,

at the well Beer-Lahai-roi, that Isaac dwelt (Gen. xxiv. 62, xxv. 11),

and the place was famous for an incident in the life of Hagar (xvi. 14).

This was perhaps the original scene of the striking episode "in the land

of Moriah," when at the last moment he was by angelic interposition

released from the altar on which he was about to be sacrificed by his

father in obedience to a divine command (Gen. xxii).[2] The narrative

(which must be judged with due regard to the conditions of the age)

shows that the sacrifice of the first-born, though not inconsistent with

Yahweh's claims (Ex. xxii. 29), was neither required nor tolerated (cp.

Micah vi. 6-8). See MOLOCH.

Isaac is by general consent of the Christian church taken as a

representative of the unobtrusive, restful, piously contemplative type

of human character. By later Judaism, which fixed its attention

chiefly on the altar scene, he was regarded as the pattern and

prototype of all martyrs. The Mahommedan legends regarding him are

curious, but trifling.

The resemblance between incidents in the lives of Isaac and Abraham is

noteworthy; in each case Isaac appears to be the more original. See

further ISHMAEL, and note that the pair Isaac and Ishmael correspond

to Abraham and Lot, Jacob and Esau. On general questions, see E.

Meyer, _Israeliten_ (_Index_, s.v.). For attempts to find a

mythological interpretation of Isaac's life, see Goldziher, _Mythology

of the Hebrews_; Winckler, _Gesch. Israels_ (vol. ii.).