The Suez Canal and Red Sea. 247 



shaped and prettily tinted with pink and gray. Sea bream, 

 and a number of fish new to me, were on sale in the fish 

 market. In the Arab village the native fish shops were in 

 the open air, and generally by the side of a gutter not half 

 so savoury as the fried fish. The negro boys seemed to have 

 a sweet tooth in the direction of fried fish, and so did the 

 spectral curs which, in Port Said, as in other Egyptian and 

 Turkish towns, do the work of scavengers. 



The canal itself swarms with fish, which are taken in 

 considerable numbers by the sailors anchoring in the sidings 

 for the night. The mullet rarely take bait, but the salmon- 

 shaped fish above referred to, sea bream, a sea perch, and 

 cat-fish, are not at all fastidious. They prefer a whitebait 

 description of small fry first, after this a cockle, but do not 

 reject pork or beef. The native anglers use fine hooks and 

 lines, and no rods. Had we not by ill luck consigned our 

 rods and spinning-flights to the hold, "not to be used on 

 the voyage," I am convinced we might have employed our 

 time most pleasantly and profitably, during the many hours 

 we were doomed to linger in the canal. 



The native fishermen, chiefly Egyptian-Arabs, might be 

 seen stealing silently into the canal at nightfall, and at very 

 early morn they would be in the market with the results of 

 their night's hook-and-line work — in some instances 50 lbs. 

 of fish and over, all of good size, and, until breakfast time, 

 good quality too, and of a dozen different varieties. After 

 nine or ten o'clock, fish in hot climates can no longer be 

 called fresh. The fishing is conducted on the old-fashioned 

 system to which we are accustomed at our English watering- 

 places, and with the varying fortune to which fishermen in 

 all climes and times are resigned. The Oriental — and I 

 presume the Port Said Arab is of that generic multitude — 

 does not lust after a meat-laden table, but is generally 



