SIX months' bird collecting in EGYPT. 85 



harbour," and a capital modern mole, three quarters of a 

 mile long and sixty feet wide. In the foreground, the 

 harbour, with all its varied flags of many nations. Behind, 

 Great Pompey's Pillar, tall and meaningless ; and to back 

 all, a blue sky of such transcendent purity as no painter 

 could depict. As we approached nearer I could perceive, 

 with the help of my glasses, the swarthy sailors with their 

 fantastic clothes and strange headgear, and then our good 

 steamer snorted horribly and came to anchor, and the 

 quarantine men leapt on board, and after that Achmed 

 Abdallah, our Dragoman, all smiles and welcome. 



Alexandria is utterly different from Cairo ; as much so 

 as St. Petersburgh is from Moscow. In each case the 

 northern is the Europeanized representative of the southern. 

 It is delightful in its way, but besides being far less rich in 

 remains of antiquity, it is not so healthy as Cairo ; and yet 

 I think tourists are wrong in allowing their Dragomen to 

 hurry them, unless, as was our case, their Diabeyha* be al- 

 ready engaged and waiting for them. 



There is the celebrated Cleopatra's Needle, which it would 

 never do to go away without seeing. It is about its sister 

 obelisk (for obelisks are all in pairs), that there has been 

 so much discussion lately. The facts of the case are that 

 it belongs to us, but our government, deterred by the tre- 

 mendous expense which our neighbours put themselves to 

 in removing one of the Thebes obelisks to Paris, have not 

 liked to take it ; albeit, there have been sundry rumours 

 that the Prince of Wales meant to bring it home, and 

 suggestions that he should dig a channel up to it and put it 

 on a raft, for it lies near the sea. It is also a question with 

 right-feeling people whether all objects of antiquity are not 

 best left in sitit. The two "needles" stand in a stone- 

 mason's yard, and about as much care is taken of them as of 



** Nile boat. 



