"No; they made the rocks," added the magnate.
"Made them!" exclaimed Mrs. Blossom. "Do you expect us to believe that?"
"There is a great deal of such work done in the United States, and in some of our cities there are streets paved and sidewalks built of manufactured stone," replied Mr. Woolridge. "At the town which you see, the piers start out about two-thirds of a mile apart, and approach each other till they are less than a third of a mile from each other. They were built to protect the port from the north-west winds which sometimes blow very fresh here, and to prevent the harbor of Port Said from being choked up with the Nile mud from the mouths of the great river.
"These piers were constructed by a French firm. The first thing was to manufacture the artificial stone, which was composed of seven parts sand, of which there is a plentiful supply in this vicinity, and one part of hydraulic lime, imported from France. I suppose the latter is something like the cement used in New York in building sewers and drains, or other works in wet places. This concrete was mixed by machinery, then put into immense wooden moulds, just as you make a loaf of sponge cake, Mrs. Blossom, where it was kept for several weeks. These blocks weighed twenty tons each."
"Goodness! They were heavier than Mrs. Grimper's sponge cake!" exclaimed Mrs. Blossom.
"Considerably," laughed the magnate. "The solid contents of each were thirteen and a third cubic yards. How big a cubic block would that make in feet, young gentlemen? I hope you are not neglecting your mathematics for geography and sight-seeing."
"About seven feet," replied Louis, after some mental figuring.
"A little more than that," added the professor.
"Seven feet is about the height of the cabin of this ship, and one of them would just stand up in it," continued Mr. Woolridge. "They made thirty of them every day, and twenty-five thousand were required."
"This is about as wonderful as the immense work of the ancient Egyptians," said Mrs. Belgrave.