206 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



maritime canal. Our encampment, which will re- 

 main the same for the rest of our expedition, consists 

 of three round tents twenty feet in diameter, the first 

 being for Linant and myself, the second for Mougel 

 and the young engineer A'ivas, who acts as secretary 

 to Linant, and who, having been brought up in Egypt, 

 speaks Arabic like a native, and the third for the 

 servants. There is a fourth tent which is used as a 

 kitchen. Some twenty barrels of Nile water are 

 placed between the first and second tents, and watched 

 day and night, for upon them our safety depends 

 during our expedition. Around the kitchen are cages 

 containing poultry and pigeons, and I am surprised to 

 find that though these cages are left open during the 

 day their inmates make no attempt to get away. 

 There is also a small flock of sheep and goats, thirty- 

 three camels and dromedaries in the care of fifteen 

 Bedouins who sleep among them, and a couple of asses 

 for the use of Mougel, who cannot endure the motion of 

 the dromedary. 



"We agree to start early on the morrow, and M. 

 A'ivas reads us the memorandum of M. Linant relative 

 to the levellings executed under his direction in 1853 

 along the whole length of the isthmus from Suez to 

 Pelusium." 



" December Bl, 1854. 



" Soon after daylight we are ready for a start, and 

 find the dromedaries ready saddled and crouched down 



