200 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



Hotel des Indes, with 'Mount Attaka to the right, 

 while to the left I can just make out the beginning of 

 the mountain chain which culminates in Mount Sinai. 

 This part of the coast has a rosy tint which is re- 

 flected in the waters, whence I suppose comes the 

 name of < Eed Sea. ? People are beginning to move 

 about on the quay, and boats, the oars of which are 

 long poles with a round paddle at the end, accost the 

 vessels which have just arrived or are leaving for 

 Jeddah. These boats, with no decks, but with an 

 elevated poop and painted prow, are not unlike the 

 Chinese junks. The dresses of the natives and the 

 foreigners, as well as the furniture of the houses, give 

 the traveller a forecast of what Arabia, India, and China 

 are like. I notice that the inhabitants are more deli- 

 berate in their movements than in the rest of Egypt. 



" Suez is, moreover, an isolated point, surrounded by 

 deserts ; its population, numbering from three to four 

 thousand, is a very miserable one, having only brack- 

 ish water to drink. Our canal will bring it water and 

 activity, which it lacks. 



" Going up to the terraced roof of the hotel I am 

 able to obtain a complete topographical notion of the 

 surrounding country, and I am anxious to see all this 

 for myself, as when I have taken in a thing myself I 

 shall be able to make it comprehensible to those who 

 are not engineers. Linant and Mougel ask me to be 

 sure and always give them my opinion. I had been 

 told that perhaps they would not always agree, but in 



