The passengers, goods, and
letters are landed at Atfeh; they are there reshipped, and carried
by steamboat from Atfeh up the Nile to Boulac, a distance of 120
miles. This water transit consumes eighteen hours. At Boulac, which
is the port of Cairo, the passengers, goods, and letters are again
unshipped, and have a land transit of two miles before they arrive
at Cairo. At that capital a stoppage of twelve hours, which is
considered indispensable to travellers, occurs. A fourth transit
then takes place to Suez from Cairo, across the Desert. This is
performed by vans with two and four horses, donkey-chairs (two
donkeys carrying a species of litter between them for ladies and
children,) and is often attended, owing to the scarcity of good
horses, with great inconveniences. The distance of this land transit
is eighty-four miles, and consumes thirty-six hours. The whole
distance by the present line is thus 246 miles; by the projected
line it is 80: the transit by the present line consumes _four days_;
the transit by the proposed line would not consume more than _five
hours!'_.

"'Instead of a land, and river, and desert transit, with all the
obstructions and inconveniences of track-boats, native steamers,
donkey-chairs, and vans, shipping and unshipping, there will be no
_land transit_, and the whole passage may be made by sea from London
to Bombay without stoppage. Instead of four days being consumed in
the Egyptian transit, five hours will only be requisite. Moreover,
the 2_l_. 12s. expense caused by the present transit in Egypt, and
charged to each person, will in future be saved by every
passenger.'"

MR. BARRAUD. "I propose a vote of thanks to Emma for introducing the
subject, as by so doing we have gained a great deal of information."

MR. WILTON. "There you see, Emma, you are not laughed at, but we all
thank you, for revealing your thoughts. Now to the Persian Gulf, if
you have any particulars."

EMMA. "The Persian Gulf is another noted inland sea, about half the
length of the Red Sea, and is the grand receptacle of those
celebrated rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris. The small bays
within this gulf are Katiff Bay, Assilla Bay, Erzoog Bay. There are
various islands and large pearl banks here; and on the Euphrates,
not many miles from these shores, stands Chaldaea. The inhabitants
are the Beni Khaled Arabs, descendants of the founders of the 'Great
Babylon.'"

GEORGE. "Oh, papa, I have a discovery: here is an