274 NOSTOCIIINE^. 



others said that tliey did not recollect having seen it before. 

 All seemed surprised that I should attach such interest to it. 



" If it be necessary to describe the appearance of the sea, I 

 should say that its surface was covered with a compact stratum 

 of but little thickness, but of a fine texture, of a brick red, 

 shghtly tinged Avith rouge ; sawdust of this colour, of ma- 

 hogany, for example, would produce very nearly the same 

 effect. It seemed to me, and I said at the time, that it was 

 a marine plant. No one seemed of my opinion ; so with a 

 pail tied at the end of a rope I was able to gather, with one 

 of the sailors, a certain quantity of the substance : this with 

 a spoon I introduced into a white glass bottle, thinking 

 that it would be the better preserved. The next day the 

 substance had become of a deep violet, and the water had 

 taken a pretty pink tinge. Fearing that the immersion 

 would hasten the decomposition instead of preventing it, I 

 emptied the contents of the bottle upon a piece of cotton (the 

 same which I remitted to you). The water passed through it 

 and the substance adhered to the tissue. In drying it became 

 green, as you actually saw it. I ought to add, that on the 15th 

 of July we were by the side of the town of Cosseir ; that the 

 sea was red the whole day ; that the next, the 16th, it was the 

 same until near mid-day, the hour at which we found ourselves 

 before Tor, a little Arabian village, the palms of which we per- 

 ceived in an oasis on the border of the sea, below the chain of 

 mountains which descends from Sanai, even to the sandy shore. 

 A little after mid-day, the 16th, the red disappeared, and the 

 surface of the sea became blue as before. The 17tli we cast 

 anchor at Suez. The red colour had consequently showed itself 

 from the 15th of July, towards 5 o'clock in the morning, up 

 to the 16th, nearly an hour after mid-day; that is to say, 

 during thirty-two hours. During this interval the steam- 

 boat, making eight knots an hour, as said the sailors, had 

 traversed a space of 256 miles, or 85 leagues and a third. 



" In the different works relative to Egypt and the Red Sea 

 which I have had occasion to read, I do not recollect to have 

 found mention made of a similar fact : it appears to me, 

 nevei'theless, but little probable tliat it has not been ob- 



