FROM THE RED SEA TO THE NILE 



247 



branch of the railway which goes from the main Port Said-Cairo line 

 eastward to the Port of Suez at the Red Sea end of the Suez 

 canal. About four species are cultivated in India, while a recent 

 writer in the Annals of Botany (1912) notes that Opuntia vulgaris 

 from California (?) is well established on the granite rocks in 

 eastern China. It seems possible that a few species of the twelve 

 hundred included in this family may become widely useful; but the 

 possibilities are suggested rather than demonstrated by any tests 

 made outside of Mexico. 



After the examination of the shore, we began to look up the long 

 slopes toward the mountains twenty miles away. The most suit- 

 able means of beginning the penetration of Africa seemed to be the 

 native transport, camels; and it was upon the humps of these that 

 we rode up and across the long bajadas of detrital material with 

 great patches of brown, desert pavement of wind and sand polished 

 pebbles and made our progress to where the channels of some 

 dry washes, which are known as "khors, " offered a number of 

 features worth a close examination. 



The collector who travels atop of a camel, after having backed 

 the western cow-pony, will find several changes of technique nec- 

 essary. First of all, one's head is full ten feet from the ground; 

 and, although a good horizon is gained, yet near views of small 

 plants are not obtained. When, however, interest grows to the 

 point where one feels he simply must dismount — and interest 

 should be very concrete and determined to warrant this procedure ; 

 for dismounting from a camel is equivalent, in mental effort, to 

 stopping a transcontinental limited or a five-day Atlantic liner — 

 the word is passed to your attendant, and intimation is also given 

 to your mount. Then begins a scene that, properly staged, would 

 hold an average audience a quarter of an hour. The animals begin 

 to weave about, snarl and roar in expostulation, while the riders 

 continue the low throat clearing sound that, finally, may bring 

 your animal down to the ground, resting on the apex of his breast 

 bone with his legs folded under him. The photographs and notes 

 secured, you seek your saddle once more, which now stands about 

 the height of your belt and looks as easily attainable as a seat in 

 a trolley car. Here, however, the novice may come to quick dis- 



