452 DESERT SCENERY. 



Canal, and notably that portion traversed by the railway 

 from Ismailia to Suez: given a day when the sun is 

 shining brightly, the sands, gravels, and sterile cliffs 

 and mountains comprise almost every shade of colour- 

 ing, from white, to deep reds, and yellows, and even 

 chocolate, and purple hues: but the splendour which 

 the stern lineaments of the desert can assume are never 

 more striking than at sunset and sunrise : let any lover 

 of the beauties of Nature take the trouble to watch 

 the effects produced at these times, either at Suez, or 

 along the Nile, or from the plateau of the great 

 pyramids at Gizeh looking eastwards towards Cairo, 

 with its white houses, numerous minarets, and ancient 

 citadel seen across the valley of the great river clothed 

 during the tourist season in its matchless mantle of 

 emerald green. But it is not these things, beautiful 

 as they certainly are, which produce the marvellous 

 effects of colouring to which we desire to call attention 

 these are merely adjuncts, such as the skilful artist 

 might desire to make use of, to set off the principal 

 feature of his picture. 



It is the desert itself which occupies the leading 

 place in the picture. The distant hills, which almost 

 everywhere form the background in the great panorama, 

 generally appear perfectly divested of every particle 

 of vegetable covering; mere masses of sterile rock. 

 The country appears bereft of every trace of life, yet 

 on cloudless evenings, as the sun is setting, the land- 

 scape will be seen lit up with a glowing mantle of deep 

 rose pink which cannot fail to strike every beholder 

 with wonder and admiration. 



The scenery of the desert is, in fact, on these 

 occasions, very often grand and impressive, beyond 



