THE OVEBLAND EOUTE 231 
as one's head the Colocynth was the only plant visible, and that 
sparingly, so like the soil it straggled over, that the great yellow 
apples alone betrayed its position. At Suez, 
as the position of the transit of the Children of Israel, one 
could not help looking about, and trying to grasp one natural 
feature that should afterwards vividly recall the spot ; but 
there was none ; looking N., an arm of the sea wound up to 
where a canal in the more glorious days of Egypt connected 
the Nile and the Ked Sea. 
A score of years were still to elapse before de Lesseps 
renewed that glory of the ancient empire, and incidentally 
swept away these wearinesses of the old Overland route. 
The Governor-General's party were comfortably installed 
in the hotel long before the ordinary passengers began to arrive, 
130 in all, in detachments of six or eight vans every four hours 
through the night. Next day they embarked on the Mooziiffer. 
This was ' a noble ship,' as large as the Sidon, but although 
the captain gave up everything to Lord and Lady Dalhousie, 
the Indian Government had made no proper accommodation 
for the large party : 
the rest of us have to fig it out in the ship's armoury, a dirty 
place, next to the engine, intolerably hot and smothered 
with coal-dust. We lie on mattresses on the deck, and it 
is all we can do to turn out tidy for meals in the cabin. 
In consequence, as he writes later from Madras, 
I have lost nearly all my collections (particularly that made 
at Aden) from the salt water in our wretched dormitory on 
board this ship. Not only were much of my collections 
destroyed, but my spare paper ; so that at Point de Galle 
I could not collect a single thing. 
Aden itself was ' the ugliest, blackest, most desolate and 
most dislocated piece of land of its size that ever I set eyes 
upon, and I have seen a good many ugly places.' Unsatis- 
factory also was the Indian Ocean, ' the most uninteresting 
sea I ever crossed ; without birds or any fish but flying fish 
to relieve the monotony of the cruise.' 
