Magnæ et invicta Britanniæ
Melitensium amor et Europæ vox

Has insulas confirmat A.D. 1814."

EGYPT, PORT SAID, AND THE SUEZ CANAL. The land about Port Said is so low, that the approach to the harbour would be difficult were it not for a lighthouse 160 ft. high, built of concrete, which stands on the sea-shore to the right of the harbour close to the W. mole, and shows an electric light flashing every 20 seconds, and visible 20 m. off. The harbour is formed by two breakwaters, 1500 yards apart, built of concrete, the western 2726 yards long, the eastern 1962 yards long. A red light is shown at the end of the W. mole, and a green one at the end of the E. The depth of water at the entrance is 30 ft. Since the works were begun, the sea has receded m., and a bank has formed to the N.W. of the entrance, having only 4 to 5 fathoms water on it, and it increases, being caused by a current which sets along the shore, and meeting the sea rolling in from the N., is forced back, and deposits its silt. Inside the W. jetty another bank is forming, and extends 100 ft. every year. In 1874 the channel was dredged out in December to 29 ft., and by February 1875 it had filled again to 25 ft. Port Said town is modern, and most uninviting, and consists mainly of wooden houses, chiefly low cafés and gambling-houses, with some shops; it is a very important coaling-station. Opposite the anchorage on the Marina is the French office, where pilots are got, and where they take a note of the ship's draught, breadth, length, and tonnage. In this office there is a wooden plan of the canal, along which wooden pegs, with flags, are placed, showing the exact position of every vessel passing through the canal. The Arab quarter lies to the W., and contains over 6600 souls and a mosque. The Place de Lesseps in the centre of this quarter has a garden, and some houses of a better sort. The streets swarm with flies, and mosquitoes also are numerous.

The Canal,1 opened in 1870, is in round numbers 100 m. in length, and as far as Ismailia, that is for about 42 m., it runs due N. and S. It then bends to the E. for about 35 m., and is again almost straight for the last 20 m.

The following are the dimensions of the canal (see Handbook of Egypt).

Width at water-line, where banks are low

328 ft.

Depth

Slope of bank at water-line 1 in 5; near base 1 in 2.

26 99

Every few m. there is a gare, or station, and a siding with signal posts, by which the traffic is regulated according to the block system

1 For a history of the canal, see Handbook of Egypt, John Murray.

by hoisting black balls. Every year the navigation is rendered easier by the construction of additional sidings. Traffic is carried on through the canal at night by the aid of electric light. Vessels must not move faster than 6 m. an hour.

On the W. of the canal, as far as Al Kantarah (the Bridge), that is for about one-fourth of the way, there is a broad expanse of water, called Lake Manzalah, and for the rest of the distance to the W., and the whole distance to the E., a sandy desert, on which foxes, jackals, hyenas, and, it is said, occasionally even lions, wander at night. 21 m., or 34 kil., from Kantarah, and 20 m. from Port Said, the old Pelusiac branch of the Nile is crossed, and 8 m. to the S.E. are the ruins of the ancient city of Pelusium. At Kantarah the canal intersects the caravan-track between Egypt and Syria, and is crossed by a flying bridge; a traveller should go on the upper deck of his ship when approaching it, as, if a caravan chances to be passing, it is a most interesting sight. 10 m. to the W. is Tel al Daphne, the site of Daphne, the Taphnes of Judith, i. 9. At 2 m. S. of Kantarah the canal enters the Lake Ballah, and after 12 m. reaches the promontory Al Fardanah, which it cuts through. Thence, after 4 m., it reaches Al Girsh, the highest ground in the isthmus, 65 ft. above sea-level. There was a great camp here when the works were in progress. A staircase of 100 steps led down to the canal. Beyond this, near the entrance to Lake Timsah, a small canal joins the maritime canal to the Fresh-Water Canal. The difference of level is 17 ft., which is overcome by two locks. A steam-launch comes to meet steamers on the canal, and land passengers for

ISMAILIA, pop. 4000, which has now much of the importance and traffic that formerly belonged to Suez; the mails and passengers for Egypt are landed here-hotel. A broad road lined with trees leads from the landing-place across the Fresh-Water Canal to the Quai Mehemet, and traverses the town from E. to W. In the W. quarter are the stations, the landing-quays of the Fresh-Water Canal, and large blocks of warehouses, and beyond them the Arab village. In the E. part are the houses of the employés, the residence of the Khedive, which was used as a military hospital during the English occupation of Ismailia in 1882, and the works by which water is pumped from the FreshWater Canal to Port Said. These are worth visiting. At Ismailia there is much vegetation, and some good houses,-one belongs to M. de Lesseps. There is good water-fowl shooting here, and some antelopes are to be found. The fish of Lake Timsah are better flavoured than those of the Mediterranean. Lake Timsah, or Bahr al Timsah, "the Lake of the Crocodile," to which the Red Sea is said to have formerly extended, is crossed in about 21 m. The course is marked by buoys. After 4 m. the canal reaches the higher ground of Tussum, where the level of the desert is 20 ft. above the sea, and here the first

[India]

C

working encampment in the S. half of the isthmus was formed in 1859. Three m. to the S. is Serapeum, where the level is from 15 to 25 ft. above the sea, so called from some remains of a temple of Serapis. A mile and a half from this the canal enters the Bitter Lakes, where the course is buoyed. These lakes are the ancient Gulf of Heræopolis. At the N. and S. end of the principal lake is an iron lighthouse 65 ft. high, on a solid masonry base. After 28 m. the deep cutting of Shaluf is reached, in which is a band of sandstone, with layers of limestone and conglomerate, in which fossil remains of the shark, hippopotamus, tortoise, and whale have been found. From this to the Suez mouth of the canal is 12 m. Some think that the passage of the Israelites was through the Gulf of Heræopolis.

All the way from Ismailia the banks are fringed with vegetation, and the plain on either side is dotted with bushes. There is little fishing in the canal for those who like the amusement, and at Suez there is a great variety of fish.

SUEZ.-The chief historical interest of Suez is derived from its having been supposed to be the spot near which the Israelites crossed the Red Sea under the guidance of Moses, and where the Egyptian army was drowned, but modern criticism tends to place the scene of this event farther N. In the early years of the 18th century Suez was little better than a small fishing-village, galvanised now and then into commercial life by the passage of caravans going to and fro between Asia and Egypt. But in 1837, owing to the exertions of Lieutenant Waghorn, the route through Egypt was adopted for the transit of the Indian mail, and a few years after the P. & O. Company began running a line of steamers regularly between India and Suez. This was followed in 1857 by the completion of a railway from Cairo (since destroyed), and Suez soon began to increase again in size and importance. It suffered, however, from the want of fresh water until the completion (1863) of the Fresh-Water Canal to Suez brought an abundance of Nile water to the town; and the various works in connection with the Suez Canal, the new quays, the docks, etc., raised the population to 15,000. With the completion of the canal, the activity of the town decreased, and since the transfer of the mails to Ismailia, the place has been almost deserted, and the fine quays and warehouses are unused, as steamers now usually anchor in the Roads. There is a railway line to Ismailia.

The Old Town itself offers few points of interest. To the N. of the town are the storehouses of the P. & O. Company, the lock which terminates the Fresh-Water Canal, the English Hospital, and, on the heights above, is the chalet of the Khedive, from which there is a magnificent View; in the foreground is the town, the harbour, the roadstead, and the mouth of the Suez Canal; to the right the range of Gebel Attakah, a most striking and beautiful object, with its black-violet heights hemming in the Red Sea; away to the left the

rosy peaks of Mount Sinai; and between the two, the deep blue of the gulf.

The whole of the ground on which the quays and other constructions stand has been recovered from the sea.

EXCURSION TO WELLS OF MOSES.—A pleasant excursion may be made to the Wells or Fountains of Moses, Ayun Musa, or, as it is more commonly called in the singular, Ain Musa. From a steamer in the roadstead they look quite near. It will occupy, according to the route taken and the time spent at the place, from half a day to a day. The shortest way is to take a sailing-boat, or one of the small steamers that ply between the town and the harbour, as far as the jetty, which has been built out into the sea to communicate with the new Quarantine lately established on the shore of the gulf for the reception of the pilgrims on their return from Mecca. From this point to Ain Musa the distance is not much over a mile; if donkeys are required between the jetty and the Wells, they must be sent from Suez. The other plan is to cross over in a boat to the old Quarantine jetty, about half a mile from the town, either taking donkeys in the boat or sending them on previously, and then to cross the Suez Canal by the ferry used for the passage of caravans between Arabia and Egypt, and ride along the desert to the Wells. Or the boat may be taken down to the entrance to the canal, and way to the usual starting-point for the Wells. Either of these routes will take from three to four hours. The sums to be paid for boats and donkeys had better be strictly agreed upon beforehand. There are two so-called hotels at Ain Musa, where beds and refreshments can be procured, but the visitor who intends spending the day there had better, perhaps, take some food with him. This excursion may be combined with a visit to the docks, the traveller landing there on his return.

then up it a short

The "Wells" are a sort of oasis, formed by a collection of springs, surrounded with tamarisk bushes and palm trees. Since it has become, as Dean Stanley calls it, "the Richmond of Suez,”—a regular picnicing place for the inhabitants of that town,-some Arabs and Europeans have regularly settled in it, and there are now a few houses, and gardens with fruit trees and vegetables. The water from the springs has a brackish taste. Most of them are simply holes dug in the soil, which is here composed of earth, sand, and clay; but one is built up of massive masonry of great age. Though not mentioned in the Bible, its position has always caused it to be associated with the passage of the Red Sea by the Israelites, and tradition has fixed upon it as the spot where Moses and Miriam and the Children of Israel sang their song of triumph.

THE RED SEA.-A fresh breeze from the N. generally pre

two-thirds of the voyage down the Red Sea, and is, during the winter months, succeeded by an equally strong wind from the S. for the rest of the way. During the summer, the wind from the N. blows throughout the sea, but is light in the southern half, and the heat is great. The Sinaitic range is the first remarkable land viewed to the E., but Sinai itself, 37 geographical m. distant, is hid by intervening mountains of nearly equal height.

The Red Sea extends from the head of the Gulf of Suez to the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, about 1400 miles, and its greatest width is about 200 miles. At Ras Mohammed it is split by the peninsula of Sinai into two parts; one, the Gulf of Suez, about 150 m. long, and from 10 to 18 wide, and the other, the Gulf of Akabah, about 100 m. long, and from 5 to 10 wide.

Wherever seen from the sea, the shores of the Red Sea present an appearance of absolute sterility. A broad sandy plain slopes inappreciably to the foot of the mountains, which are in most parts a considerable distance inland. The ordinary mail-steamer's track, however, lies down the centre of the sea, and little more than the summits of the distant bare and arid mountains will be seen.

The only port on the E. shore between Suez and the division of the sea is Tor, two days' journey from Sinai. The Khedivieh Company run steamers, touching at one or two of the intermediate ports between Tor and El Wedj. Opposite the end of the Sinai peninsula is Jebel ez-Zeit, "the mountain of oil," close to the sea. At this point the Egyptian government have lately expended large sums in searching for the petroleum which there is reason to believe exists. Up to the present, although a certain amount of oil has been found, it has not been proved to exist in sufficiently large quantities to pay for the money sunk. If leave can be obtained from the Public Works Department, a visit to the site of the borings might be made. At ElGimsheh, a headland, terminating the bay to the S.S.W. of it, are some sulphur-mines, grottoes, and inscriptions in the Sinaitic character. About 27 m. inland are the old porphyry quarries of Jebel ed-Dokhan, 66 mountain of smoke." The road from Gimsheh past Jebel edDokhan may be followed to Keneh on the Nile. The distance is about 140 miles.

The ruins of Myos Hormos are on the coast in latitude 27° 24'. The town is small, very regularly built, surrounded by a ditch, and defended by round towers at the corners and the gateways. The port mentioned by Strabo lies to the northward, and is nearly filled with sand. Below the hills, to the eastward, is the Fons Tadmos, mentioned by Pliny. Besides the ancient roads that lead from Myos Hormos to the westward is another running N. and S., a short distance from the coast, leading to Aboo Durrag and Suez on one side, and to Suakin on the S.