EL-ARISn— PELUSIUM— SAN. 421 



of vessels, and especially of the dredges employed in the canal. Here there is an 

 incessant movement of steamers, yawls, and other craft plying from bank to bank, 

 while larger shipping is moored near the quays, and men-of-war cast anchor in the 

 roadstead near the lighthouse. 



Although situated on Egyptian territory. Port Said is a European, or rather a 

 French city, as regards its inhabitants, its social life, and local traffic. French is 

 the dominating language, and in it instruction is imparted to the fifteen hundred 

 pupils of the rival establishments opened here by the Capuchin friars and the 

 Freemasons. Port Said is the healthiest place in Lower Egypt. By means of 

 cast-iron pipes it derives its water supply from the Ismailia Canal at the rate of 

 about 35,000 cubic feet a day, a quantity which barely suffices for the wants of the 

 inhabitants, leaving nothing for irrigation purposes. Hence the surrounding 

 gardens languish, and the great want of the place is avenues of shady trees, such 

 as have been planted at Ismailia. 



Hitherto the Suez Canal Company has in vain made every effort to obtain the 

 concession of a canal derived directly from the Damietta branch of the Nile, although 

 it has offered in return to give commercial unity to Egypt by connecting its seaport 

 with the local railway system by means of a branch constructed across Lake 

 Menzaleh. Fearing to be supplanted by Port Said, Alexandria employs all its 

 influence to check the progress of its eastern rival, which nevertheless cannot fail 

 sooner or later to acquire the commercial supremacy, thanks to its spacious and 

 convenient harbour, and to its situation at the northern extremity of the inter-oceanic 

 canal.* 



El-Arish — Pelusium — San. 



East of Port Said Egypt still possesses a group of habitations which, as the 

 chief town of a province, may claim the title of city. This is El-Arish, which 

 stands on an eminence commanding the approach to a wady, usually regarded as 

 the natural frontier between Egypt and Palestine, at the exact centre of the concave 

 bend here developed by the Mediterranean coast-line. But of the ancient cities, 

 situated in this north-eastern district of Egypt no vestige can now be discovered, 

 everything having been thickly overlaid by alluvial deposits. 



Of Pelusium, the " City of Mud," nothing is visible, except a mound in the 

 midst of the swamps, not far from a depression once flooded by the Pelusiac branch 

 of the Nile. Farther west the two islands Tenneh and Tunah have nothing to 

 show except shapeless heaps of refuse. More important remains, however, have 

 been left by San, or Tunis, which under the name of Ha-war, or Avaris, was the 

 ancient capital of the " Shepherd Kings," and at one time one of the great cities of 

 Egypt. The mound standing near the southern shore of Lake Menzaleh still bears 



* Shipping of Port Said, exclusive of vessels in transit, in 1S80, according to Amici : — 



Arrivals 1,507 vessels of 997,611 tons. 



Departures .... 1,530 ,, 997,395 ,, ' 



Total 3,037 ., 1.995,00fi ,, 



