Page:Three Years in Europe.djvu/25

Rh The fort of Aden is very strong on account of the rocky nature of the place. The reservoir of this place is very well worth seeing. Water is so scarce in this country that they are obliged to keep a place surrounded on all sides by walls of natural rocks, which is filled with water in the rainy season, and supplies the people all the year round. The way leading to the reservoir is finely constructed, with walks, seats and stair-cases carved out of the rocks.

We left Aden on the next morning, and about 6 o'clock in the evening we passed through the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb. On one side were the rocks of Arabia, and on the other those of the small isle of Perim, and beyond the islands could be seen the high mountains of Africa.

In the Red Sea sharp bare small rocks rise precipitously from the sea, and it is these rocks, and many others under the surface of the water, which make navigation in the Red Sea so dangerous.

By the morning of the 27th we had entered the Gulf of Suez, and saw land on both sides of us. The sea was calm, as calm it could be, the surface appearing like a sheet of glass, the red beams of the sun had just tinged the yellow rocks and hills of Africa, and far behind them could be seen a higher range of greyish mountains encircling the view. Here and there we saw rocky islands dreary and barren, and refusing nourishment to a single plant or a single blade of grass. At 11 o'clock in the night we reached Suez. We left the Mooltan at Suez, to perform the journey to Alexandria by rail. The Suez Canal has not been completed yet.