254 By Stream and Sea. 



that the enlargement of the canal has become an admitted 

 necessity. During the last five years the tonnage passing 

 through the canal has quadrupled. In March, 1874, there 

 were thirty-three vessels at one time in the canal, and when 

 you consider that the speed of transit must not exceed five 

 miles an hour, and that the sidings are few and far between, 

 you may understand why something should be done. At 

 Port Said I found a general impression that the English 

 Government, in their new-born capacity of large shareholders, 

 would take the initiative in proposing the widening of the 

 canal as an improvement that must be effected if the pro- 

 prietors would secure from their remarkable enterprise all 

 that it is capable of yielding. 



Having taken on board your pilot, you slowly make for 

 the canal. Perhaps, however, I should have mentioned that 

 the trifling ceremony of paying your account to the company 

 is first gone through. Prepayment saves time and simplifies 

 book-keeping. Now, the Suez Canal is a luxury that costs 

 hot a little. The tariff has been altered once or twice, but 

 it is now settled at a nominal 10 francs, but actual 14 francs 

 per ton, and 10 francs per head for passengers. Our ship 

 was a moderately large one (2500 tons register), there were 

 next to no passengers, and we took in 150 tons of Welsh 

 coal at 35 s. per ton ; yet the money paid for canal dues and 

 coaling (the items being included in the same account) 

 amounted to ^1176 10s. 



At last, then, we are in the canal — barges and lighters 

 under the one bank ; rusty cranes, broken-down trucks, and 

 dilapidated iron bars and wheels strewed higgledy-piggledy 

 on the other — Port Said all over. Physically and morally, 

 they never clear away the dkbris. However, we soon get 

 clear of the suburbs. 



The shallow sheet of water to the right is what is left of 



