‘A JOURNEY IN THE EAST’ 315 
We now saw for the first time the Suez Canal, with Asia 
on its further side. Our first sight, however, of that quarter 
of the globe was not very imposing, for Asia appeared in the 
form of an embankment. 
The steamer brought us quickly to the town and landed us 
near the hotel. There were only Huropeans in the streets, 
and everything we saw might very well have belonged to an 
English seaport. The hotel was a large and quite modern 
building, very well managed, and greatly reminded us of 
Switzerland ; not a single object in it savoured of the Hast, 
and we were, with the exception of an English family, its sole 
guests this evening. Soon after our arrival a capital supper 
was served, and by ten o’clock we were all sound asleep in 
bed. 
Next morning we left the hotel and went on board a Suez 
Canal steamer. The captain, a gruff old man, was French, so 
were his whole crew; and take it altogether the Suez Canal 
and its belongings are really a bit of France. 
At the outset the African lake Menzaleh is seen beyond 
‘the embankments on the west, the Asiatic plain of Pelusium 
on the east; and the feeling of travelling between two quar- 
ters of the globe is at first exciting, but one at last gets used 
even to this grand idea, and finds the reality extremely 
wearisome. 
Gigantic swarms of Pelicans and Flamingoes, containing 
thousands and thousands of birds, were standing on the marshy 
southern parts of Lake Menzaleh; but the sole result of a 
volley which we poured into them was the rise of a living 
cloud, larger than one could possibly imagine. 
The country on the right, after the lake had come to an 
end, appeared to be utterly desolate, but the high banks of the 
canal shut out the view, and well-built earthworks alone both 
right and left do not make a pleasing picture. The only 
diversion which we had was an encounter with a large Hast 
