j 62 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



the Arab's Tower we reached a well, around which 

 the Viceroy had formed his encampment the night 

 before. He had started at four in the morning to 

 cross the lake at a point where it was almost dried up. 

 As we followed the wheel-marks of his carriage, 

 which had left deep ruts at the places where our 

 horses' feet sank deep, we could see that the troops 

 must have some difficulty in passing all the way. I 

 talked to Zulnkar Pasha whom I had known years 

 before, when he was the companion of Mohammed 

 Said in their boyhood of my project, and under- 

 standing its importance for Egypt, he promised me 

 that he would avail himself of his intimacy with the 

 Yiceroy to endeavour to pave the way for me, and 

 make him favourable to the scheme. 



" After crossing the lake we enter upon that part 

 of the Libyan desert which, in ancient times, was an 

 inhabited and civilised country, and which has, since 

 the Arab conquest, been abandoned to a few Bedouin 

 tribes. Every now and again one sees around the 

 ancient wells some of those black tents, of camels' hair, 

 which the Scriptures speak of, and which are still the 

 same in Palestine, Syria, Arabia, and all the coast of 

 Africa, from Egypt to Morocco. 



" The sky clouds slightly over, and a slight breeze 

 makes the atmosphere rather cooler than it was on the 

 other side of the lake. I witness a regular desert scene : 

 a dog is busily engaged in tearing to pieces a dead 

 animal, and close beside him are solemnly stalking 



