302 DR. HOOKER’S MISSION TO INDIA. 
I had a plaid for the night, and my two barometers slung round 
amy neck. Bell, an old Indian, who is always chilly, was bundled 
up in all imaginable clothes, European and Oriental. We had no 
refreshment but claret, which owing to our hurried departure was 
my sole share of the Consul’s dinner. In the second van were 
Fane, Courtenay, Captain Henderson, and our Dragoman, who 
belonged to the Transit office. In the third, the butler, coach- 
man, lady's maid, and a native (Hindi) woman, an Ayah or 
servant. This was all our force. For the first part of the road 
we were terribly jolted ; and I began to fear it was too true that 
no one could transport barometers safe (mine are so yet) by the 
overland route. We stopped every three or four miles to bait 
or change horses. "The night was bright starlight and clear, and 
we were all in excellent spirits. The stations are large rambling 
buildings, lone houses in the Desert, with never a tree or other 
dwelling near them : they are white-washed, one or two stories 
high, generally one, and amply supplied with beer, wines, and all 
sorts of eatables, just now when the mails are passing: at other 
times nothing is to be had. Our whole journey from Alexandria 
to Suez was at the Pacha’s expense (except my own when living 
at Cairo), and we were certainly handsomely feasted, housed, and 
honoured, and also transported, considering the country we passed 
through. Lord Dalhousie gave a most liberal Backsheesh " to the 
various servants, for the time from our leaving the “Sidon” on 
Sunday mid-day, until arriving at Suez on the following Friday 
afternoon. 
At 5 o'clock in the morning we came to a half-way house, 
and halted for two hours. I walked out, as soon as day dawned, 
at a quarter past six: the Desert was a large bed of gravel, all 
pebbles as far as the eye could reach, except when the long, low, 
steep piles of limestone occurred, and these were far off. The 
pebbles were sometimes arranged in lines of heaps, having sandy 
intervals, whereon were scattered plants of Hyoscyamus, some 
Grasses, Rutaceæ, Capparidee, Heliotropium (P) and Zygophylla- 
Altogether there were not five individuals of any kind to an acre 
of surface. The soil was chilled by nocturnal radiation, and the - 
