208 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



met by Linant and Mougel, who told me that they 

 had just seen a luminous meteor shooting from the 

 east like a rocket, and, after describing a semi-circle, 

 breaking up into a shower of fire towards the west. 

 I only just saw the tail end of the phenomenon, so if 

 it had not been for the evidence of my companions I 

 should not have ventured to record it. If we lived 

 in the age of signs and miracles, I might compare 

 this vision with that which I had seen on the morning 

 of November 15th, the day when the final decision as 

 to the Suez Canal was given. This one occurred on 

 December 31st, the opening day of our voyage of ex- 

 ploring, during which we laid the first foundations of 

 a union between the east and the west. 



" I got M. Linant to read his treatise upon the 

 ancient geography of the isthmus compared to the 

 modern, and upon the route taken by the Hebrews, 

 so as to be able to profit by the impressions which I 

 had just received from reading some of the principal 

 passages in the book of Moses." 



" January 1, 1855. 



" We are on the move by five o'clock, and go round 

 in a westerly direction the basin of the Bitter Lakes, 

 which formed part of the Eed Sea in the time of 

 Moses, but which is now dried up. One can see 

 scattered over what was the bed of the sea lumps of 

 saline composition which look like bits of ice after a 

 thaw. We go over part of this ground, leaving to 



