Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/519

 EL-ABISn— PELU8IUM-8AN. 421 of vessels, and especially of the dredges employed in the canal. Here there is an incessant movement of steamers, yawls, and other craft pljnng from bunk to bank, while larger shipping is moored near the quays, and men-of-war cast anchor in the roadstead near the lighthouse. Although situutetl on Egyptian territory, Port Said is a Eurojx'an, or rather a French city, as regards its inhabitants, its social life, and local traffic. French is the dominating language, and in it instruction is imparted to the fifteen hundred pupils of the rival establishments opened here by the Capuchin friars and the Freemasons. Port Said is the healthiest place in Lower Egypt. By means of cast-iron pipes it derives its water supply from the Ismailia Canul at the rate of about 35,000 cubic feet a day, a quantity which barely suffices for the wants of the inhabitants, leaving nothing for irrigation purposes. Hence the surrounding gardens languish, and the great want of the place is avenues of shady trees, such as have been planted at Ismailia. Hitherto the Suez Canal Company has in vain made every effort to obtain the concession of a canal derived directly from the Damietta branch of the Nile, although it has offered in return to give commercial unity to Egypt by connecting its seaport with the local railway system by means of a brunch constructed across Lake Menzaleh. Fearing to be supplanted by Port Said, Alexandria employs all its influence to check the progress of its eastern rival, which nevertheless cannot fail sooner or later to acquire the commercial supremucy, thunks to its s|)ucious and convenient harbour, and to its situation at the northern extremity of the inter-oceanic canal.* El-Arish — Pelusium — San. East of Port Said Egypt still possesses a group of habitations which, as the chief town of a province, may claim the title of city. This is El-Ariah^ which stands on an eminence commanding the approach to a wady, usually regarded as the natural frontier between Egypt and Pulestiiie, at the exact centre of the concave bend here developed by the Mediterranean coast-line. But of the ancient cities, situated in this north-eastern district of Egypt no vestige can now be discovered, everything having been thickly overlaid by ulluvial deposits. Of Peiusium, the " City of Mud," nothing is visible, except a mound in the midst of the swamps, not far from a depression once flooded by the Pelusiac branch of the Nile. Farther west the two islands Tenneh and Tunah have nothing to show except shapeless heaps of refuse. More important remains, however, have been left by San, or Tatm, which under the name of Ila-uar, or Aran's, was the ancient capital of the " Shepherd Kings," and at one time one of the great cities of Egypt. The mound standing near the southern shore of Lake Menzaleh still bears Arrivals 1,507 vewels of 907,611 ions. Depaituies .... 1.530 „ 9«7,S95 ., To: Hi. },0S7 .» ljn6,(M „
 * Shipping of Port 8«id, ezcluuve of reatela in transit, in 1880, according to Amici :—