THE ORIGIN OF THE SUEZ CANAL. 209 



our right swamps in which a traveller would be 

 engulfed, horse and all, without the least chance of 

 escape. About half a mile to our left are the Awebet 

 Mountains, from which good building stone and lime- 

 stone might be taken. 



" We ascend a hill where we see blocks of granite 

 which have composed what is called the Persepolitan 

 monument, and one of these blocks is covered with 

 cuneiform or Assyrian inscriptions, while upon another 

 is a vulture with outstretched wings, and the ancient 

 royal wand of Egypt at each corner. 



" This monument is supposed to have been erected 

 by Darius, the Persian conqueror, after his expedition 

 to Egypt, either to mark a boundary of territory or 

 to perpetuate the recollection of the reconstruction of 

 the canal of the Pharaohs, which is attributed to him 

 by Herodotus. The stone used for it is granite from 

 Mount Sinai. 



" We still follow the desert, leaving the basin of the 

 Bitter Lakes to our right, and find the ground less 

 hard than that which we had ridden over the day 

 before ; the sand is not so coarse, and preserves the 

 footsteps of all the animals which have run over it. 

 We notice the footsteps of hyaenas, gazelles, foxes, and 

 hares crossing one another in all directions. At four 

 o'clock we encamp in the valley of the Akram, which 

 is the name given to a certain kind of bush. 



u In the evening our conversation turns upon the 

 canal from Suez up to the point which we have 



VOL. i. p 



