capital of the Egypt of
to-day. During our visit to the Pyramids the Swedish-Norwegian
consul-general, BOeDTKER, gave us a dinner in the European hotel
there, and the same evening a ball was given us by the Italian
consul-general, DE MARTINO. A day was besides devoted by some of us,
in company with M. GUISEPPE HAIMANN, to a short excursion to the
Mokattam Mountains, famous for the silicified tree-stems found
there. I hoped along with the petrified wood to find some strata of
clay-slate or schist with leaf-impressions. I was however
unsuccessful in this, but I loaded heavily a carriage drawn by a
pair of horses with large and small tree-stems converted into hard
flint. These he spread about in the desert in incredible masses,
partly broken up into small pieces, partly as long fallen stems,
without root or branches, but in a wonderfully good state of
preservation. Probably they had originally lain embedded in a layer
of sand above the present surface of the desert. This layer has
afterwards been carried away by storms, leaving the heavy masses of
stone as a peculiar stratum upon the desert sand, which is not
covered by any grassy sward. No root-stumps were found, and it thus
appeared as if the stems had been carried by currents of water to
the place where they were imbedded in the sandy layers and
silicified. In their exterior all these petrifactions resemble each
other, and by the microscopical examination which has hitherto been
made naturalists have only succeeded in distinguishing two species
belonging to the family Nicolia, and a palm, a pine, and a
leguminous plant, all now extinct. It is possible that among the
abundant materials I brought home with me some other types may be
discovered by polishing and microscopical examination. Such at least
was my expectation in bringing home this large quantity of stones,
the transport of which to the _Vega_ was attended with a heavy
expenditure.

From Cairo we returned, on the 2nd February, to Suez, and the
following day the _Vega_ weighed anchor to steam through the Suez
Canal into the Mediterranean. This gigantic work, created by the
genius and perseverance of LESSEPS, which is unsurpassed by the many
marvels of construction in the land of the Pharaohs, has not a very
striking appearance, for the famous canal runs, like a small river
with low banks, through the monotonously yellow plain of the desert.
There are no sluices. No bold rock-blastings stand as monuments of
diff