his passage was also the spot where Moses is
said to have conducted the Israelites across the Red Sea. The work on
the Suez canal was commenced in 1859 and completed in 1869, and it cost
about $95,000,000. The length of the canal is one hundred miles, its
width at the surface of the water is three hundred and twenty-eight
feet, at the bottom seventy-two feet, and its depth twenty-six feet. To
a ship sailing from Sweden or England to Bombay in India, the distance
by way of the Suez canal is five thousand miles shorter than by the
passage around the Cape of Good Hope.

I recollect an anecdote which dates from the opening of the canal in
1869. On that occasion an irreverent speaker is claimed to have said in
toasting De Lesseps, the French engineer who planned and executed the
work, that the latter was the only man who had improved upon the work of
the creator: He had connected the waters of the Red Sea and those of the
Mediterranean. Thus the significance of a great work may also find an
expression in the garb of a bold joke.

Having remained in Suez a short while, the steamer glided out on the Red
Sea, keeping close up to the naked coast of Africa. On the second day of
our Red Sea voyage we saw Mount Sinai looming up some distance from the
coast of Arabia. September is the hottest month of the year in that
region, and as we had the wind with us, the customary breeze caused by
the motion of the steamer was neutralized, and the heat was terrific. We
slept on the deck, and we hailed the morning hour with joy on account of
the shower-bath which was afforded when the sailors washed the deck. It
is a conundrum to me why this body of water is called the Red Sea, for
there is nothing whatever to suggest this color. One day we had a
miniature illustration of a sand storm. A strong wind carried the sand
from the coast of Africa several miles into the sea and covered the
steamer with a layer of fine, white sand, which looked like fresh snow.
We also had a chance to see flying fish which flew over the ship, and
occasionally fell down on the deck. These fish were small and
silver-colored, their fins looking a good deal like the wings of the
bat. They can not turn in their course, nor can they fly up and down at
pleasure, but only upward and forward in a straight line; and when they
fall down on the deck they are just as helpless as any other fish out of
water.

Having reached the Indian ocean, the temperature became more pleasant,