6 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



istics are as well known to him as are those of 

 his next-door neighbor; and as each appears and 

 departs, and, months later, appears and departs 

 again, he mentally welcomes and god-speeds her as 

 he would an intimate companion, whether she be a 

 little black coaling tramp or a palatial liner. When 

 one considers that up to the opening of the Trans- 

 Siberian Railway, which has not detracted in the 

 slightest degree from the number of vessels using 

 the Suez Canal, every person, every letter, and 

 almost every case of merchandise passing directly 

 between Europe and the Orient was carried through 

 that narrow strip of water, within a stone's throw 

 of the hotels and houses of Port Said, one realizes 

 what a busy scene is presented by the water-front 

 of the little town. 



A year or two ago the accidental discharge of a 

 cargo of dynamite totally wrecked a steamer in the 

 middle of the Canal, leaving her in such a position 

 as entirely to block the traffic in both directions, and 

 necessitating the closing of the waterway for ten 

 days until the wrecked steamer could be removed. 

 During those ten days the ample harbor at the Port 

 Said entrance to the Canal became so congested 

 that literally not another ship could find a berth ; 

 the vessels lay in rows but a few feet apart, like 

 beds in a hospital ward, side by side and nose to 



