ch. i.] Kantara. 9 



this little oasis it might fairly he said that the desert had 

 been made "to blossom as the rose." 



We reached here at sunset, and the air was deliciously 

 cool and fresh, and a sight of the dark green poplar trees 

 was most cheering and home-like. Crickets chirped in 

 the sand, and the splashing of the fish in the Canal was 

 heard very frequently after we had made fast for the 

 night. The tints on the vegetation and sand-hills by the 

 banks just before sunset are most lovely, and the sunsets 

 themselves very gorgeous as seen through the clear dry 

 air. Two of the firemen had to be placed in irons soon 

 after leaving Port Said, to prevent them from leaping 

 overboard or injuring themselves. They were literally 

 maddened by some villanous spirituous drink which had 

 been smuggled on board during the hurry and bustle of 

 coaling in the morning. Here and there we passed the 

 bodies of dead camels, on which wolfish-looking dogs or 

 vultures regale themselves. Flocks of flamingoes were 

 seen in the distance. As the air becomes clearer after 

 sunrise the distant sand-hills resemble islands in a broad 

 lake or sea, an effect due to mirage ; indeed, the semblance 

 of a flat expanse of water lying in the full sunshine near 

 the horizon is so perfect as to deceive all but the expe- 

 rienced. The hills of loose sand close to the banks of 

 the Canal are swept quite smooth by the winds in some 

 places, while here and there the surface is rippled like a 

 snow-ruck, and the foot-prints on these "sands of time" 

 made by the passing Arab are singularly like those made 

 in frozen snow. 



At one of the stations an old Arab offered a basket of very 

 fine fish for sale which he had caught in the Canal the 

 night before. We got a view of the Khedive's Palace and 

 M. F. de Lessep's residence at Ismalia just before running 

 through the " Bitter Lakes," and reached Suez before 



