THE VOYAGE FROM NAPLES TO EAST AFRICA. 27 



spection of it enabled him to make a close comparison between the 

 two great canals. The Suez Canal is, of course, a very different 

 proposition from that of Panama, though the problem of part of 

 the latter is similar to that of the whole of the Suez Canal, whose 

 sandy shelving banks necessitate a constant dredging which is the 

 day and night task of the canal guardians. 



The ex-President's ship glided so silently, so slowly through the 

 narrow channel that at times it seemed as if it was not moving. The 

 low flat level shores, stretching in alternate wastes of sand and 

 water to the horizon, are so uniform that there is no feature by 

 which to mark progress. On the eastern horizon the mountains of 

 the Holy Land rise like a pink vision of lonely desolation. How 

 many years did those unfortunate sons of Israel wander in that 

 dreary land far away to our left? 



NEATLY KEPT CANAL STATIONS. 



Natives, some on camels, some on donkeys and some on san- 

 daled feet, travel with the ship or pass it going the other way. Oc- 

 casionally, like anthills, Arab settlements rise out of the sand on 

 either side, taking on the color of the desert which drifts about 

 them. Or we come to the neatly kept canal stations, all numbered, 

 which stand at regular intervals along the way. To pass each other 

 steamers must wait in appointed widenings of the channel. 



The Bitter Sea spreads out to emphasize the monotony. Al- 

 ways it is sand, sand, sand, and the still and glassy channel and the 

 tremendous firmament on high, blazing by day and all a-glitter by 

 night, bending over the sand and water and shutting it in like a 

 huge brass bell. Beyond Suez, which lies at the Red Sea end of the 

 canal, one comes to the place where the children of Israel passed 

 safely through the divided waters which then rose and engulfed 

 Pharaoh and his hosts. Ah ! those wonderful descendants of Jacob ! 

 They ''wrote the Book," (Exodus 14: 22, 28). 



It was at this point that the ex-President passed under the 

 shadow almost of Mount Sinai, where Moses and Aaron ascended 

 and the Lord promulgated the ten commandments, (Exodus 20). 



No place on the whole route looks more forbidding and utterly 



