PORT SAID. 419 



ISMAILIA El-KaNTARA. 



At Ncfish, in the same district, the road and the Freshwater Canal running to 

 Suez turn towards the south-east, whilst another branch of the canal takes a north- 

 easterly direction to the new city of IsmaUia, on the shores of Lake Timsah. While 

 the great canal was in progress Ismailia enjoyed great importance as a chief centre 

 of the supplies for the hands engaged on the works. But at present it is far too 

 extensive for its reduced population. Its open spaces are deserted, and its streets, 

 fringed by shady trees and skirted here and there by gardens and shrubberies, 

 resemble the avenues of a park more than the thoroughfares of a commercial town. 

 Nevertheless, Ismailia might again become inhabited, were the stream brought by 

 the Freshwater Canal made more generally available for the irrigation of the oasis 

 already reclaimed from the surrounding desert. 



Nor is this artery much used for navigation, although it has a normal depth of 

 10 feet and a width of about 180 feet, sufficient to give access to vessels of 

 400 tons burden. Some traffic, however, is carried on by means of the Suez Canal, 

 and the port and- open waters of the lake are often crowded with large vessels riding 

 at anchor in these inland waters. Exclusive of the transit trade, the movement of 

 the port of Ismailia amounted, in 1882, to over two hundred and seventy steamers, 

 with a gross tonnage of nearly 600,000 tons. 



Along the line of the canal from Ismailia to Port Said the only station deserv- 

 ing the title of village is El-Kantara, or " the Bridge," so named from a small 

 structure of this sort which here formerly crossed a channel flowing between Lakes 

 Ballah and Menzaleh. Standing on an isthmus between inundated tracts, El- 

 Kantara formed an indispensable station for all caravans along the main highway 

 between Asia and Africa. This station is even still annually used by several 

 thousand camels, which are watered at the great reservoirs that the Company has 

 here constructed near the banks of the canal. In Lake Ballah, to the west of 

 El-Kantara, a large " gare," or shunting station, is to be formed for the conve- 

 nience of steamers using the canal. 



Port Said. 



Port Said, which, like Ismailia, is a new town, but full of life and bright 

 prospects, thanks to the constantly increasing navigation of the great marine high- 

 way, has been founded on the narrow strip of sand separating Lake Menzaleh from 

 the Mediterranean. The creation of this city on a surf-beaten strand fully twenty- 

 four miles from all freshwater streams, from any cultivated lands, or the smallest 

 clump of trees, may be regarded as one of the triumj)hs of modern industry. 

 Lying between the open roadstead and the inner basins of the harbour, Port Said 

 consists of some fifty islets, separated from each other by broad streets disposed 

 mainly at right-angles. Most of the houses, built either of wood, brick, or iron, 

 are used as warehouses and depots for all kinds of produce and provisions, as rich 

 and well- stocked as similar structures in the European trading-places. 



