Every five or six miles there are side basins where one ship
can pass another. That is all I need say at present; but as we are
sailing through, there will be much more to say."

The usual applause followed, and then the commander took the rostrum.

CHAPTER XIX

THE JOURNEY OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL

Captain Ringgold suggested to the magnate of the Fifth Avenue that he
had omitted something, as he pointed to the long piers which extended
out into the sea.

"I had it on my tongue's end to mention them; but I am not much
accustomed to speaking before an audience, and I forgot to do so,"
replied Mr. Woolridge. "But then they are engineering work, and I doubt
if this company would be interested."

"I was wondering where they obtained all the stone to build them in this
place, where there appears to be nothing but sand and mud," interposed
Mrs. Belgrave. "They must be nearly a mile long."

"They are quite a mile long," replied Mr. Woolridge.

"Did they bring the stone from the quarries away up the Nile, where they
got the material of which the pyramids are built?"

"Not at all; that would have been about as big a job as digging out the
canal."

"Hardly; for they could have brought them by water about all the way,"
said the commander. "But the material did not come from those
quarries."

"No; they made the rocks," added the magnate.

"Made them!" exclaimed Mrs. Blossom. "Do you expect us to believe that?"

"There is a great deal of such work done in the United States, and in
some of our cities there are streets paved and sidewalks built of
manufactured stone," replied Mr. Woolridge. "At the town which you see,
the piers start out about two-thirds of a mile apart, and approach each
other till they are less than a third of a mile from each other. They
were built to protect the port from the north-west winds which sometimes
blow very fresh here, and to prevent the harbor of Port Said from being
choked up with the Nile mud from the mouths of the great river.

"These piers were constructed by a French firm. The first thing was to
manufacture the artificial stone, which was composed of seven parts
sand, of which there is a plentiful supply in this vicinity, and one
part of hydraulic lime, imported from France. I suppose the latter is
something like the cement used in New York in building sewers and
drains, or other works in wet places. This concrete was mixed by
machinery, then put into immense wooden mould