108 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



left to themselves to find them. A winter abroad 

 in a warm climate is a more serious matter. It 

 inevitably involves a long journey ; and in the 

 degree in which the invalid travels south do the 

 amenities of civilisation cease, and the hardships 

 incidental to comparative barbarism increase. I 

 venture to think, therefore, that whoever contributes 

 a new idea in regard to the advantages held out by 

 localities which are not generally known or recognised 

 as winter or health resorts, may find his justification 

 for so doing in the possible benefit he may be the 

 means of conferring xtpon some of his fellow-creatures. 

 On the Mediterranean, as a rule, just in propor- 

 tion as you get quiet and economy do you get bad 

 accommodation. The objection to Egypt is that, 

 whether you stay in Cairo or go up the Nile, you 

 merely exchange one very expensive alternative for 

 another. In the former case you have the choice of 

 two, or at most three, hotels, crowded with tourists 

 or visitors ; in the latter, of a dahdbeeyah or Cook's 

 steamer. Lodgings are out of the question, and so is 

 travelling of any kind except by water. In Algiers, 

 to have comfort, you must keep near the principal 

 centre of civilisation. In the towns of Southern 

 Europe the winter climate is generally too cold to 

 meet all the requirements of those in search of a 

 radical change. It has long been a wonder to me 

 that, under these circumstances, the merits of the 

 coast of Syria have not been more generally recog- 



