ROUND THE WORLD.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XIV, Issue 2069, 27 November 1886, Page 2

ROUND THE WORLD.

.■ ' ■ -v^ * --j ■ < Part J^London^alft^Suez Canal ; i^,i and,Coipm|&: wliiE ill Loadoiff^Palflo Tisited the "Zoo/ going thither by underground railway, and spent a very amusing and instructive day amoDgst the birds, beasts, reptiles, insects and fishes, there assembled. I took care to be present at the feeding of the lions and tigers, whose allowance was about six or eight pounds oi raw^meat^eacb, which were despatched amid much growling and •.•; snarling, i/aiid'at' the" conclusion qf thg r r,epj|B|^ the /animals _ SGemec[ to be of the same opinion as ,; Oliver 1 Twist when he asked- Beadle - Bumble for - H more." In the reptile department the .obliging, attendant wasdesirous of placing > large snalce, 7; which he declared to be quite haEmlesiß/s* around my neck and body, butllrdje-.: jclinedthe honour with thank's: ~Asleep in a tank of warm water wag a gigantic boa-constrictor, eight inches, in diameter and with length inpropor- ' tion. Among the reptiles I recognised some that I might almost caU : "old friends," viz the Tuataras or Karewa vh lizards sent' from here,, and-j wa« in i| teresiedrtoknow on triiaf they. ■ were : -:< fed, - -kk i)ie general rmpregsion, here ' seemarto bethat they hardiy^ajtat ill; 4 a Their food in the!; "Zoo''. consists ;; oi the imalllEiiglish lizarda- which : they • devour with; avidity, their allowance v being three at one feed. The partia*. lity of different creatures for certain kinds of food is certainly very curious; another remarkable instance * of this is ; noticeable in ytheinsect house, Jwhere . jbhereis an enormous South American spidar very .tenomous,itii body isoneand a-ha]f inches long and. tliick. in prbpor- ... tion, and the insect covers a space as ,; bigas'the^palraof one's hand, and its ' food is one baby rat a day. • ■• I left London for a ; short visit" to ' some friends and returning thither again at the end of June embarked on July 2nd 011 one of the P. and 0. Cob. fleet of steamers. Passing down the river and round the coast of Kent we had good views of DoVer, Folkestone, &c. and the famed, ■"White-cliffa of old England." .Ourgilotleft.us, at. Eyde and from tn'ere we steanied put into mid channel and saw no more land until we sigh ted Gape , Finis'terre on the coast of Spain and from there ph" ? to v the; Strait* fes Gibraltar, the" Weather 'was; mostenjoyabld ; arid- the 'Beft*iike ~:- --glass. Of the Straits we-saw nothing, as we passe^.tjiroug^ a,t night b#tnext, day Baw^jmmething of the coait of Algeria, .pur first stopping place.was. . Malta-,- wbick £ *om -the; jea, looked very cool and inviting with ie£ dazz^ng" j white hpuseß*risirig : one above aifd^ißP up the green 'of 'me hu&s%f&^ when jan, 1 *^ore we fpundit moffc ,4isagreeaUy. hot, dry, and dusty! and ; J&e < street* narrow and steeps Witt high buildingsorreitlier side. ' The" hiirtfdtfp'' is partly p'rpifected ; froni' the " A^da«la ' of the sea by a strong breakwater of '-rid »andstone, atod iron* the incursions of Britain's enemies by pbwerfui forts both Inside and outside* the "entrance, which-, are supplied with jheavy ordnance, some of it being however, of rather antique pattern. "We visited^ t% beautiful ' church of St John, 'belonging* to : tn'e* .' Crusader Knight* o£ Sfc Join, this .building id one of the ; richest and moat gorgeous structures va. the world, being a perfect museum of art, comprising stone carving,- freaco paintings jewelled work and every description of screen and gate work in bronze and other metals, besides a- painting of the Ma-, donna and Child byjHaphael. Wedrore out past the Governor's country house, which was being got in readiness to receive the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh. In the afternoon ire wandered through the streets of Va- . letta, the .business part, of the place and also vlnited the Monastery, which the monks politely shewed us over; these same monks by the way, appeared.as if the. fastings and. mortifications of the flesh agreed very well with them; they exhibited'to/us several relics of which they were extremely I proud, but We did not feel very enfchusiastic on the subject. At 7 p.m., our passengers again assembled on board and we steamed out into the Mediterranean and steered for Port Said, the entrance to theJSuez,Ganal. Here the vessel only stayed a «hort time, and a party of f pur /including myself, who had gone ashore f orf a ramble were near missing our passage. *'. Port Said is about as unprepossessing a place as I have seen, it is extremely dirty and the inhabitants fully bear outthe 'first impression one receives from their surroundings, being rer^- filthy and un-> pleasant in their manners and* customs A •■ On proceeding to rejoin our ship we found she had already slipped her moorings and was moving away. The native boatmen consequently tried to blackmail us, but after a good deal of bargaining and a little physical force we got a"way-to the, ; ship.. Camels are^ the usual means of transit ashore here, and we saw along string of them being utilised in forming an embankment by carrying Targe loads of sand' " in panniers on either side of their backs. , Passing on., up the Canal at iaboui;s miles an hour, we saw little but the higb\ banks of hot, dry sjindbf > a brick dust colour, and at 6 p.m. we tied up f6r the nigh t. My cabin mate' and I then dropped from our iarge • port and swam to the Asian shore of the Canal ami thra across "to "•Africa — and back to ;ttie v ship: 'Next day at B p.m, we aJrived,at Su^ez.at; the head of the Eed sea '"• here stayed about hours to get -water, during which the natives swarmed around and tried to sell us all sorts of things, iucluding flowers from Moses well and other .curios of more than doubtful authenticity. The heat passing down the

Ued ■•* was as usual very intense, and it was a relief to emerge out into the Indian Ocean ,• after proceeding about 100 miies we. encountered a sefere monaoon whiclx destroyed the appetites of some o£ the passengers for a day or so, but did no further damage, and after that little episode we continued our journey uneventfully till wo reached Colombo,, the port of the poetic "Ceylon's Isle," the description *of which I must defer untH my next part. To be continued.