They returned to the hotel in season for dinner. The evening was passed in the house, and the party went to bed in good season, as they were to leave at eight o'clock in the morning for Cairo. They were at the station in due time for departure, and found the train was composed of carriages after the English pattern, in charge of a native conductor who spoke French. By judiciously presenting him with a rupee they secured a compartment to themselves.
While they were waiting for the train to move on the Doctor told the boys about the "overland route" through Egypt.
"The route that was established by Lieutenant Waghorn was by steamship from England to Alexandria, and thence by river steamboats along the Nile to Cairo. From Cairo, ninety miles, to Suez the road was directly through the desert, and passengers were carried in small omnibuses, drawn by horses, which were changed at stations ten or fifteen miles apart. Water for supplying these stations was carried from the Nile and kept in tanks, and it was a matter of heavy expense to maintain the stations. The omnibus road was succeeded by the railway, opened in 1857, and the water for the locomotives was carried by the trains, as there was not a drop to be had along the route. This railway was abandoned and the track torn up after the construction of the Canal, as the expense of maintaining it was very great. In addition to the cost of carrying water was that of keeping the track clear of sand, which was drifted by the wind exactly as snow is drifted in the Northern States of America, and sometimes the working of the road was suspended for several days by the sand-drifts. The present railway follows the banks of the Maritime Canal as far as Ismailia, and thence it goes along the Fresh-Water Canal, of which I will tell you.
"The idea of a canal to connect the Mediterranean and Red Seas is by no means a modern one."
"Yes," said Frank, "I have read somewhere that the first Napoleon in 1799 thought of making a canal between the two seas, and his engineers surveyed the route for it."
"You are quite right," responded the Doctor, "but there was a canal long before the time of Napoleon, or rather there have been several canals."
"Several canals!" exclaimed Frank. "Not several canals at once?"
A LANDING-PLACE ON THE FRESH-WATER CANAL.