10 TWO YEAKS IN THE JUNGLE. 



European — quarter, and is characterized by broad streets, fine, airy 

 buildings, parks and gardens, grand hotels and a theatre, stylish 

 carriages and gas-lamps, in all of which it is eminently Parisian. 

 All this is agreeable, but uninteresting, and we turn back to the 

 wonders and dehghts of the old city. Here, at least, the nineteenth 

 century has wrought no change, and we take pleasure in thinking 

 that the city is to-day very like what it was when the Pyramids 

 were new, when England was inhabited by savages, and America 

 was unknown. It may not be so, but still we like to beHeve that 

 these are the same cramped and crooked streets, the same latticed 

 windows and overhanging upper stories, the same bazaars and 

 work-shops and wells that were here when the brethren of Joseph 

 came down, as envoys extraordinary, to practise the arts of di- 

 plomacy in the cOurt of Pharaoh. 



Of course we saw the sights as we went along, the beautiful 

 mosque of Mehemet Ali, built of oriental alabaster — the prettiest 

 building material in the world ; the mosque of Sultan Hassan ; the 

 citadel, and the place where the Mamaluke leaped his horse over 

 the wall ; Joseph's well, cut 260 feet deep through solid rock — 

 which is much better for the posterity of " Joseph " (the Sultan 

 Saladin !) than a bronze equestrian statue or a monument covild 

 possibly be. The Turkish bazaar is veiy Hke a church fair, inas- 

 much as you get less there for your money than anywhere else, 

 but it is worth a visit all the same. The Museum of Egyptian An- 

 tiquities at Boulac was full of interest and mummies, but I fear 

 the Egj'ptian collection in the British Museum surpasses it. The 

 Khedive has lately put a stop to the exportation of antiquities from 

 Egypt, and now not a single article can be shipped without an 

 order from him. 



Our pleasantest excursion from Cairo was to the Petrified For- 

 est, south of the city, for specimens of petrified wood and other 

 fossils. Cook does not take his tourists out that way, and for once 

 we were not harassed by crowds of beggars for " backsheesh," or 

 sellers of Brummagem antiquities. 



Having made all preparations the previous day, we mounted 

 our donkeys very early one morning and set out. Our cavalcade 

 consisted of Professor Ward, Mr. Farman, the U. S. Consul Gene- 

 ral, myself, our dragoman, IVIr. Farman's chuprassie, all upon 

 donkeys, and three brown-skinned, barefooted little Arabs, clad in 

 long blue drilliug shifts, to whip up. The sun was just rising as 

 we rode out at the famous Bab-el-Nasr gate, and there, near the 



