THE ORIGIN OF THE SUEZ CANAL. 205 



Bey has shown, retained the names used in Holy Writ. 

 We are ten leagues from Suez, and as the boats from 

 our steamer cannot go right to shore, we are carried 

 over the intervening distance by the sailors. After 

 reconnoitring the district, we find that the mountain 

 is composed of strata of alabaster, marble, and other 

 calcareous stones, while Linant Bey discovers that 

 behind Mount Gene'be', to the south, there are fields 

 of all the most valuable varieties of marble. We hope, 

 upon re-embarking at two, to reach between four and 

 five the Fountains of Moses, which really are one of 

 the places at which the Hebrews halted after the 

 passage of the Eed Sea. But after we had got about 

 half way an accident occurred to the boiler, and 

 though no serious damage ensued we had to spend 

 the whole of the night on board, and instead of enjoy- 

 ing M. Costa's dinner got back to our hotel at Suez at 

 six in the morning." 



" December 80, 1854. 



" After we had had some breakfast we gave orders 

 for our caravan of camels and dromedaries to be ready 

 for a start, and though my companions were still 

 suffering a little from the fatigue of the previous day 

 and night, we went to our tents, which were put up 

 between the gate of the town and the ruined citadel 

 of ancient Chlysma, upon the sea shore, at the end of 

 the port. It is here that will be the mouth of the Nile 

 canal, which is an indispensable auxiliary of the 



