SIX MONTHS’ BIRD COLLECTING IN EGYPT. 85 
harbour,” and a capital modern mole, three quarters of a 
mile long and sixty feet wide. In the foreground, the 
harbour, with all its varied flags of many nations. Behind, 
Great Pompey’s Pillar, tall and meaningless; and to back 
all, a blue sky of such transcendent purity as no painter 
could depict. As we approached nearer I could perceive, 
with the help of my glasses, the swarthy sailors with their 
fantastic clothes and strange headgear, and then our good 
steamer snorted horribly and came to anchor, and the 
quarantine men leapt on board, and after that Achmed 
Abdallah, our Dragoman, all smiles and welcome. 
Alexandria is utterly different from Cairo; as much so 
as St. Petersburgh is from Moscow. In each case the 
northern is the Europeanized representative of the southern. 
It is delightful in its way, but besides being far less rich in 
remains of antiquity, it is not so healthy as Cairo; and yet 
I think tourists are wrong in allowing their Dragomen to 
hurry them, unless, as was our case, their Diabeyha* be al- 
ready engaged and waiting for them. 
There is the celebrated Cleopatra’s Needle, which it would 
never do to go away without seeing. It is about its sister 
obelisk (for obelisks are all in pairs), that there has been 
so much discussion lately. The facts of the case are that 
it belongs to us, but our government, deterred by the tre- 
mendous expense which our neighbours put themselves to 
in removing one of the Thebes obelisks to Paris, have not 
liked to take it; albeit, there have been sundry rumours 
that the Prince of Wales meant to bring it home, and 
suggestions that he should dig a channel up to it and put it 
on a raft, for it lies near the sea. It is also a question with 
right-feeling people whether all objects of antiquity are not 
best left zz sct#d. The two “needles” stand in a stone- 
mason’s yard, and about as much care is taken of them as of 
* Nile boat. 
