114 THE SEA. 



steamers between Europe and the East our own grand "P. & O." (Peninsular and 

 Oriental) line, the splendid French " Messageries/' the Austrian Lloyd's, and dozens of 

 excellent lines, all make a stay here of eight or ten hours. This is long 1 enough for most 

 travellers, as, sooth to say, the very land on which it is built had to be " made," in other 

 words, it was a tract of swampy desert. It has respectable streets and squares, docks, 

 quays, churches, mosques, and hotels. The outer port is formed by two enormous break- 

 waters, one of which runs straight out to sea for a distance of 2,726 yards. They 

 have lighthouses upon them, using electricity as a means of illumination. Messrs. Borel 

 and Lavalley were the principal contractors for the work. The ingenious machinery used 

 cost nearly two and a half million pounds (actually 2,400,000), and the monthly con- 

 sumption of coal cost the Company 40,000. 



The distance from Port Said to Suez is 100 miles. The width of the Canal, where 

 the banks are low, is about 328 feet, and in deep cuttings 190 feet. The deep channel 

 is marked with buoys. The mole at the Port Sa'id (Mediterranean) end of the Canal 

 stretches out into the sea for over half a mile, near the Damietta branch of the 

 Nile. This helps to form an artificial harbour, and checks the mud deposits which might 

 otherwise choke the entrance. It cost as much as half a million. In the Canal there are 

 recesses shall we call them sidings, as on a railway ? where vessels can enter and allow 

 others to pass. 



The scenery, we must confess, is generally monotonous. At Ismailia, however, a town 

 has arisen where there are charming gardens. We are told that "it seems only necessary 

 to pour the waters of the Nile on the desert to produce a soil which will grow anything 

 to perfection." Here the Viceroy built a temporary palace, and M. de Lesseps himself 

 has a chdlet. At Suez itself the scenery is charming. From the height, on which is 

 placed another of the Khedive's residences, there is a magnificent panorama in view. In 

 the foreground is the town, harbour, roadstead, and mouth of the Canal. To the right 

 are the mountain heights Gebel Attakah which hem in the Red Sea. To the left are the 

 rosy peaks of Mount Sinai, so familiar to all Biblical students as the spot where the 

 great Jewish Law was given by God to Moses; and between the two, the deep, deep 

 blue of the Gulf. Near Suez are the so-called " Wells of Moses," natural springs of rather 

 brackish water, surrounded by tamarisks and date-palms, which help to form an oasis 

 a pic-nic ground in the desert. Dean Stanley has termed the spot " the Richmond of Suez." 



Before leaving the Canal on our outward voyage, it will not be out of place to note 

 the inauguration fete, which must have been to M. de Lesseps the proudest day of a useful 

 life. Two weeks before that event, the engineers were for the moment baffled by a 

 temporary obstruction a mass of solid rock in the channel. "Go," said the unconquer- 

 able projector, " and get powder at Cairo powder in quantities ; and then, if we can't 

 blow up the rock, we'll blow up ourselves." That rock was very soon in fragments ! The 

 spirit and bonhomie of Lesseps made everything easy, and the greatest difficulties surmount- 

 able. " From the beginning of the work/' says he, " there was not a tent-keeper who did 

 not consider himself an agent of civilisation." This, no doubt, was the great secret of his 

 grand success. 



The great day arrived. On the 16th of November, 1868, there were 160 vessels 



