Our friends passed through Tantah, a town of considerable importance, containing many handsome houses, and a palace where the Khedive occasionally passes a few days. Three times a year, in the months of January, April, and August, a fair is held at Tantah which lasts eight days. Sometimes as many as two hundred thousand people come to this fair; their ostensible object is to pray at the tomb of a Moslem saint, but the most of their time is passed in amusements and in trading. There is a large business in camels, horses, and general merchandise, and in former times a good many slaves were sold there. All around the town there are tents and booths devoted to singing and to the performances of jugglers, snake-charmers, and others whose living is derived from the amusement they furnish to the public.
The train swept along the bank of the Mahmoodieh Canal, which connects Alexandria with the Nile; it is fifty miles long and a hundred feet wide, and was built in less than a year by order of Mohammed Ali. Two hundred and fifty thousand men were employed upon it, and of this number twenty thousand died of hunger, plague, and cholera. For several miles the route of the railway lay through a marsh, and as they neared Alexandria our friends caught a glimpse of Lake Mareotis, a shallow body of water, whose principal use is to supply the Alexandria market with fish.
GENERAL VIEW OF ALEXANDRIA.
Pompey's Pillar came into view, and so did the domes and minarets of Alexandria. There was the usual crowd of porters, guides, and the like at the railway-station, and with some difficulty the Doctor and the youths made their way through the dense assemblage, and drove to the hotel. The boys found that the streets were paved with large blocks of stone, but the pavement was broken in many places, and had much need of repair. In rainy weather there are deep holes filled with mud, and the incautious pedestrian runs a great risk of taking an involuntary and very disagreeable bath.
The morning after their arrival the party started out to see Alexandria and engage passage for Jaffa. The passage was secured, and then there was leisure for visiting the points of interest in and around the city.
CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE AT ALEXANDRIA.