Page:"Round the world." - Letters from Japan, China, India, and Egypt (IA roundworldletter00fogg 0).pdf/263

 forces all the water-supply for the 15,000 inhabitants of Port Said, which is brought to Ismailia by the “Sweet-water canal” from the Nile.

Port Said is a lively town. The popula- tion is made up in great part of adventurers fyom every nation bordering the Mediter- rinenn, ‘The abounding hotels, restaurants, casinos, and the wide, sandy streets, remind one of a new town in Americas. Trenek, Jtulian, Greek, Arabie and Turkish are heard in the streets quite as often as Engs lisk, Speculation is rife, and the business o the pace inercasing rapilly. Every line of toasting steanters between Alexandria iid Constantinople touch here, as it has the niost desivable harbor on the whole southern coust of the Mediterrancan. The sanguine talk of Port Said as the “Stlver Gate between the Orient and the Oecident,” in fifty years tobe anotherVenice. the rival of Alexandria, Us harbor is entirely srtifieinl; formed by to parallel piers running out from the shore info the open sea a mile and a half— the longest piers in the world. They are built of artificial blocks ef sloue weighing tventy ions cach, composed of desert sand and hydraulic cement. Some of these linve been exposed for over six yeers to all the fury of the fiercest gales without in the least efect- ing their stability. This harbor is said to be better thin that of Alexandria (one bundred and fifty miles west), and enn be safely en- fered day or night at all seasons of the year.

Having thus made s rapid survey of the whiole length of the eanal from Suez to Port Said, we will return to Ismuilia, whieh is eouneeted with Cairo by a railway across the desert, where six years ago, was atr Tess desert on the shore of the sali lake there is now a pretty town of 6,000 neeple, with an excellent hofel and several hand- some residences surromnded by The old bed of the canal, built pe the Pharaohs, conuccting a brauch of the Nile with the Ned Sea nt Snez, and passing near this spot, has been widered und deep- ened so aso supply with fresh water at town and Port Snid, forty-five miles That “Water is Gold” is as true in Egypt as in India. Its magic effect in converting a desert into a garden I have already seen in Salt Lake City. The public square and the wide streets are planted with shade trees, near which, along the gutters trickles a stream of pure, fresh water. Behind the town, and between