TRAVELLING EXPERIENCES. 185 



then, and still contend, concerning the cause of this 

 phenomenon. I believe those to be in the right, who 

 see in the zodiacal light a proof, that the air charged 

 with aqueous vapour, rising in the equatorial zone with 

 increased velocity, forms a high ring above this zone, 

 which is further enhanced by the effect of centrifugal 

 force. The appearance answered to the pictures one 

 sees in manuals of physics, and lasted about an hour 

 before it became quite extinct. 



After an agreeable, calm passage we arrived in 

 splendid weather at Corfu, where we stopped several 

 hours, and had time to make acquaintance with the 

 interesting town and its splendid environment. At that 

 time the Ionian islands belonged to England. When 

 after a number of years I again visited Corfu it had 

 meanwhile passed into the hands of the Greeks, and 

 the town appeared to me considerably decayed and 

 poverty-stricken compared with its former appearance. 



In the finest weather we sailed through the Adri- 

 atic and Mediterranean, so rich in historical associa- 

 tions, disembarked at Alexandria and travelled by the 

 just opened railway to Cairo, where we stopped a few 

 days to give the ship Agamemnon, laden with the cable, 

 and which made the journey round the Cape of Good 

 Hope, the necessary time for arriving in Suez. I used 

 this opportunity for an inspection of the town, which 

 interested me and my engineers in the highest degree 

 by its rich historical memorials and as the point of 

 junction of the civilizations of Europe and Asia. When 

 on the 14th of April we visited the pyramid of Cheops 



