Page:Mount Seir, Sinai and Western Palestine.djvu/50

26 before we saw them in the space near the hotel. In the course of the day the whole procession with their loads passed in front of our hotel, and afforded a sight probably not very novel to the residents, but to us not only novel, but of considerable interest. The camels upon which we were to ride were bestrode by their respective drivers; then came others with barrels of flour, barrels for water, the tents, five in number, rolled up into the most compact dimensions; boxes of provisions, our camel trunks, crates with live turkeys and poultry, and other matters too numerous to mention in detail. We were not again to see them until our arrival at the landing stage near Ayun Mûsa, on the eastern side of the Gulf of Suez, to which place we intended to proceed by rail and boat.

On the morning of 8th November we left Cairo by rail for Suez, passing by Zagazig and Tel-el-Kebir, where Arabi Pasha had made, a few months previously, his most determined, but ineffectual, stand against the British arms. As far as Zagazig the country is richly cviltivated, immense fields of corn, cotton, and sugarcane succeeding each other mile after mile; while the station platforms were piled with great bales of cotton, compressed and bound with iron-straps, for shipment to England and elsewhere.

Occasionally the Egyptian ibis, an elegant bird with white plumage, and in form somewhat like a small heron, might be seen in flocks amongst the cultivated fields, close to the teams of buffaloes while ploughing; or at other times perched on the backs of the buffaloes themselves, busily engaged in clearing the ticks from these animals;—a process which the animals themselves evidently enjoyed.

After leaving Zagazig the country becomes more and more arid and desert-like, till at length, on approaching Tel-el-Kebir, the sands set in as far as the eye can reach on both sides. We noticed the ditch and entrenchments of Arabi's army which were stormed by the British troops under General Lord Wolseley, and a small camp of Egyptians still occupied the ground. We also passed the burial-ground of the British troops who fell on that memorable occasion, prettily planted with shrubs and flowers, which were being carefully tended by gardeners. Tablets to the memory of the officers and soldiers have been placed on the walls of the English church at Cairo.

The route lay along the side of the "Sweetwater Canal," which carries the waters of the Nile to Suez, Ismailia, and Port Said. This canal was constructed by the Ship-Canal Company, and it occupies very much the line of the ancient channel intended to connect the waters of the Nile