Our next port is Alexandria. The castle of Farillon, which serves as our land-mark in approaching the town, occupies the site of the famous Pharos④ of antiquity. A few miles eastwardfrom it is Aboukir Bay, where Nelson annihilated the French fleet in 1798, and shut up Buonaparte"s army in Egypt. Here the literally overland part of our route commences. From Alexandria we proceed by rail⑤ to Suez, taking Cairo on our way. Travellers hastening to India have to content themselves with a passing glimpse of Cleopatra"s Needles⑥ and Pompey"s Pillar⑦ at the first of these cities, and of the Pyramids in the vicinity of the last.
By the opening of the Suez Canal⑧ the only truly overlandpart of the Overland Route has been dispensed with, and steamers from Southampton reach India direct by way of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. At first only private vessels, specially adapted to the dimensions of the canal, and carrying both merchandise and passengers, performed the voyage without break. The adoption of the same course by the mail steamers was only a question of time, and is now universal.
The Suez Canal is certainly one of the greatest triumphs of modern engineering. Yet it is only an improvement on a much earlier plan; for it is well known that in the fifth century⑨before the Christian era, an indirect lineof canal connectedthe two seas, the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. It began at about a mile and a half north of Suez, and struck in a north- westerly direction, availing itself of a series of natural hollows, to a point on the eastern branch of the Nile. By-and-by it became silted up; and after having been several times restored, it was finally filled with the never-resting sands in 767 A. D.
Upwards of ten centuries passed before any attempt wasmade to renew communication between the two seas. Then the idea occurred to the ingenious mind of Buonaparte;but as his engineers erroneously reported that there was a difference of level between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea to the extent of thirty feet, he suffered it to drop. In 1847 a scientific commission, appointed by England, France, and Austria, ascertained that the two seas had exactly the same mean level; and in 1854 Ferdinand de Lesseps, an ingenious and enterprising Frenchman, obtained permission from the Viceroy of Egypt to make a canal across the isthmus. It was not, however, until 1858 that De Lesseps found himself in a position to appeal to the public for support. A company was then formed, and the canal was proceeded with; a variety of ingenious machinery being invented by the French engineers to meet the exigencies of their novel and ma gnificent enterprise. On the 17th of November 1869 it was formally opened for navigation, in the presence of a host of illustrious personages, representing every European State.
"As we went along the Canal," says Dr. Carpenter, describing a visit to Egypt, "we passed between mounds or banks, higher than the ordinary level. These banks were composed of material which had been excavated from the Canal, and thrown up on either side. As we steamed along very slowly, I mounted the "bridge" of the steamer, so as to be able to look over these banks; and there I saw the interminable barren waste on the Egyptian side covered with water, and on the eastern side a sandy desert extending to Palestine.
"One of the first features of interest was a "floating bridge," thrown across the Canal by steam, at a point which, I was told, was in the track of the caravans. Now here was a most curious conjuncture of modern and ancient civilisation. This caravan track is one of the most ancient of all roads, leading from Egypt into Palestine and Syria, on the very line along which Jacob"s sons may have gone down into Egypt to buy corn; and there we found one of the appliances of modem civilisation, in the shape of this "floating bridge," consisting of a large flat-bottomed boat which crosses and recrosses the Canal by means of chains wound and unwound upon large drums by a steam engine. This contact of ancient and modern civilization is one of the most remarkable features in Egypt.
"But there was another noticeable feature. There are stations all along the Canal, at which the officers reside, as well as the men who keep watch over the Canal, and who are ready to give help if any vessel should run aground. At most of these stations I noticed that there was a garden, generally with a gay show of flowers, and great cultivation of edible vegetables. Now what was the meaning of this? How could these gardens be made out of this sand and mud? The secret is, that every one of these places is supplied with fresh water.
"That fresh water is brought all the way from the Nile; for there is no fresh water to be got between Port Said and Suez- nothing but brackish water, obtained by digging. A fresh-water canal was therefore cut from the Nile at Cairo to Ismalia, a sort of half-way house between Suez and Port Said. Pipes convey this water to the railway which runs from Cairo to Suez by way of Ismalia. By this means a supply of wholesome water is conveyed regularly to all parts of the Canal, and flowers of every kind can be grown, nothing being wanted for the soilin that sunny clime but water. At Ismalia the head engineer has a villa with the most beautiful plants of all kinds, those of tropical as well as of temperate climes growing luxuriantly in his garden."Before the establishment of the Overland Route, Suez, though a place of considerable transit trade between Egypt and the East, was a small, ill-built, wretched-looking town. Since that time it has been much improved, and has become the residence of many merchants and agents. The country around it is desert, and provisions and water have to be brought from great distances.