256 By Stream and Sea. 



The canal is well worked and well kept, and is conducted 

 on a principle similar to that of the block system of the 

 English railways. The captain of our steamer received his 

 orders by a code of signals from the station ahead, and the 

 purpose of these tokens during the first two days was that we 

 were to wait in the next siding — a small bay scooped out of 

 the sandbank — until some other vessel signalled from the 

 station beyond had passed. Repeated halts of from one to 

 two hours' duration, and five miles an hour as the maximum 

 speed, severely tried our patience. It might have been 

 worse, however, for the heat (it was in January) was 

 bearable, and we were not, as many are, blinded by sand- 

 storms, although we had taken the precaution to lay in a 

 stock of wire-gauze goggles, which we were assured were the 

 only effectual protection for the eyes. 



Ismailia is as pretty as Port Said is ugly. It was pretty, 

 as I saw it in the winter time — thermometer over 8o° in the 

 shade — and when the foliage is at its best it must be indeed 

 an oasis in the wilderness. The houses are tasteful, clean 

 finished, and as substantial as they are required for such a 

 climate; the streets are laid out in good order, and the roads 

 are excellent. There are public gardens, pretty boulevards, 

 and well-shrubbed private grounds everywhere. The Greek 

 element crops up like a noxious weed even at Ismailia; but 

 they manage to keep it down, for this is the head-quarters 

 of the Suez Canal Company, and people have to behave 

 themselves accordingly. 



The disarrangements in the engines of the steamship, which 

 caused our detention in Lake Timsah a couple of days, 

 gave us many runs ashore. M. de Lesseps has a charming 

 residence here, where he is emperor, and Madame no less 

 empress. The Khedive's palace is a prominent object in the 

 foreground; so is the distant and isolated "grand stand," in 



