Contributor.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 20, 12 August 1893, Page 3

Contributor.

MR W. : H. MAT HIE SON ON HIS TRAVELS.

We reached Aden on the 2nd of June. It is a bare, desolate looking place, its principal attractions to the traveller being its ancient water tanks, of which there are about fifty. It is said that if they were thoroughly cleaned out they would h01d30,000,000 imperial gallons. Their construction dates back to the second Persian invasion of Yemen in A. D. 600. The overflow of one tank passes into the succeeding one, thus forming a complete chain, reaching to the town. This is the only water supply the inhabitants possess, and they guard it most carefully. Here, as at Colombo, we were boarded by a lot of dealers, some of whom were offering white suits at 5s each. I thought the price of clothing was low at Colombo, but had to admit that here was a lower depth still. We left on the morning of 3rd June, and soon after entered the Straits of Babul Mandib (“The Gate of Tears.”) There is always a great flow of water herd from the Indian Ocean. Strange as it may appear, not a single river runs into the Red Sea, and it has been calculated that if the Straits were closed for a century, its bed would be turned into one huge mass of salt, so great is the power of the sun here, the evaporation being equal to 23ft. per year. We are now approaching holy ground, and I feel a certain amount of awe in being privileged to see places that from my childhood have been associated in my mind with God’s wonderful dealings with the Jews. The name Red Sea is supposed to have been given from the fact that in calm and sunny weather broad bands or patches of a dull red colour are to be observed. They sometimes extend for miles. Captain Cook called them whales’ food, sea dust, or sea saw-dust. The scenery along the Sea is moat barren and desolate, but there is no lack of life and movement, for during our four days trip we passed over 200 steamers. We reached Suez on 7th June. It lies in a flat on the left of the Canal; at its entrance is a range of hills about 1000 ft high, forming a vast amphitheatre. They are marked at intervals of a few feet by strata of different colours, which would be as easily read by a geologist as the rings on a cow’s horns by a farmer. The town of Suez lies a few miles from the entrance to the Canal, and is connected with it by rail. We did not stop, and, as soon as the pilot was aboard, we steamed up to the entrance of the Channel. Here are situated the offices necessary for conducting the business, and their neatness and pleasant snrroundings ai-e a credit to the Freneh officials. The great works everywhere visible testify to . the magnitude of the undertaking by means of which a big slice is taken out of the time formerly required to make the voyage Home. We entered the Canal at six o’clock in the morning and reached Port Said at nine in the evening, 15 hours in all, whereas in the pre-canal days we would have a journey of nearly 4000 miles, or 12 days hard steaming round the Cape. You can realise the difference it made in our case, with a steamer carrying nearly 300 passengers and a cargo worth about £250,000. Apply this, not to one steamer, but to hundreds, for we were continually passing them, and you can form some idea of the saving in time and money effected by what is now regarded as a commonplace, but what was in reality one of the greatest achievements of the century. It was carried out under difficulties that might have daunted a less intrepid spirit than that of Baron He Lesseps. We laud the man who gains success by force of arms, but what shall be said of the man-who, in the face of the opposition of scientific and professional authorities, in a climate so hot that the very putting on of one’s clothes induces prespiration, and cut off from civilisation, yet persisted in his noble work and carried it to a successful issue. Pity it is

that after-all, : .iis old-age Ihs*! clouded ’w hat'"'l3 "liihowii ‘as" thA Panama Canal scandal. - But a truce to moralising I .While ah Suez I was -‘taking stock” from my favourite post in the forecastle, along with a number of other passengers, when we were requested to come down unless we wished to be sunstruck. A few minutes after I got into the shade I felt a pain in the back of my head. This gradually increased, with the result that I had to take to my bunk for a couple of days, after which, thanks to the repeated application of wet cloths to my neck, I was all right again. .The captain was very careful to get passengers to avoid exposure to the , direct rays of the, sun, as he had had a touch of sunstroke before. On one occasion, I was told, seven persons died from heat apoplexy in the Red Sea, but luckily for us we had a strong head wind, which made the heat less trying than it would otherwise have been.

Suez is famed for its light house, 150 feet high. Its water supply comes : direct from the famous Nile. We, took in a large quantity and will have it all the >vay Home. Suez has the reputation of being one of the most wicked towns in existence —a regular “ Sodom and Gomorrah.” I can vouch that its beggars are the most ugly, and dirty, and the most clamorous for backsheesh I have ever met, the touters for the shops the most persistent, the streets the most filthy and narrow, with fiat-roofed houses, and last, but by no means least, it is justly noted as the largest coaling station in the world, 1,000,000 tons of coal being loaded here ever year. Let me describe the loading of a steamer. Barges are brought up to the vessel by small steamers. Then two very long Baltic planks are run up from the barges to the steamer at an angle of about 45 degrees, as the barges are almost level with the water when loaded. Three large iron barrels are suspended at equal distances alon the planks and filled with coal lighted, which give a fairly steady glare. The coal is all ready in small kits (just about the size of a carpenter’s kit), 561bs of coal being in each. The natives then run up one plank, deposit their coal in the shoot, turn round with their kit, come down the other plank and drop them in another barge and take their turn again, and on in an endless stream, which never for one moment stops, accompanying this all the while with incessant yells Avhich are caught up by the natives on the other vessels, and returned with great spirit. And so they keep going without one moment’s respite until their barge is empty. When I state that they load a vessel with 1000 tons in four hours, some idea of the rate at which they move can be imagined. Any bald description utterly fails to convey the scene as witnessed by me. We arrived in time to see two large steamers outward bound. One was lighted with the electric light both above and below, and presented one blaze of brightness. She appeared the most beautiful sight I have ever seen, and if I could only get a correct representation of this for the limelight, showing the coaling, the different coloured dresses of the natives and visitors who crowded her decks, the brilliant uniforms of the officers and soldiers, and the white dresses of the ladies, and could reproduce faithfully the various sounds that were borne across the water, my fortune would be made. We only stayed two hours, and are now on that■_most classic sea —the beautiful, blue Mediterranean. What I shall see I will reserve for another letter. (To he continued.)