Page:"Round the world." - Letters from Japan, China, India, and Egypt (IA roundworldletter00fogg 0).pdf/255

This page needs to be proofread.

209

any roseate hue either in its stormy waves, bleak, sandy shores, or volcanic rocks.

Our first three days were genial and pleas- ant. ‘Phen the sea began to give us 4 taste ofits quality. A flerce gale sprang up from the north and sweeping down right in our teeth caused ns to lose half onr speed. A de- feet in the machinery now, snd we should have been driven back before the gale, or been dashed upon some island or rock. The temperature has suddenly faticn anfler this tierce north wind, and linen has given place te woolen. Our Indian friends teel the change keenly, and thé native servants look very disconsolate as they shiver in white vor. ton robes, and repent that they ever con- sented to leave their sunny India. But our steamer pushes steadily shead—though ut times making but four or tive niles an hour— and vesching the “Guif af Suez,” the fast ene hundred miles is in smoother water. Mount Sinai is now seen far away on our right, its summit wreathed in Neeey clouds: but between us and its base is & long streteli ef sand hills and barren desert. IT have read somewhere that when this sea is smooth wad elear—(ivhieh it never is)—the chariot wheels of the Exyyptian hosts may be seen heneath the wayes. We “‘Arablans’” unatl- nously agree with old Pharaoh that the Ke Hea is a disagreeable and treacherous piece of water; and we most heartily weleoime Ute harbor of Suez.

W. P. F.