The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-05-25
LETTER FROM THOMAS HURLE.


 Interesting Account of Our Townsman's
 Travels in the East--Bright Deserip-
 ton of Egypt and the Suez Canal.
 Sunday, March 21, 1S97.-On the Red Sea.-We are steaming along the coast of Egypt quite near the land. The mountains in sight all day. The bish- op pointed out to the passengers where It is supposed Pharaoh and his host were drowned, but we could not distin- guish anything to mark the spot,
 The weather is very cool, but fine; in fact, 1t is much cooler than I was led to expect, or I should have stayed a month in Australia, but I was told if I waited later I should find the heat very oppressive. On the Red Sea and going through the canal the thermome- ter in my cabin did not go above 80 at any time.
 This morning there was a general parade of all the ships company-over three hundred, They formed in line all around the deck, the officers with clean white trousers and resp1endent with l 6Oll idIG cillu DIdSS DullOllS illu NiAllS | gloves; the walters with blue jackets and white trousers, and the Astatic | sailors with clean white, short, baggy trousers and frocks and bright turbans | altogether making very showy ap- | pearance. When they were all formed | the principal officers passed in front | and as each mans name was called he | gave a military salute and his name was checked off by the purser. It was quite amusing to the passengers. In the evening it was lovely sight to watch the sun set behind the Egyptian mountains. The ship slowed down in the night so as not to arrive at Suez | before daylight. When we got up at 6 o'clock we were in sight of Suez and the canal. We stopped opposite the i canal for several hours to take on pro- visions, consisting of tons of live fowls, pigeons, ducks, rabbits, and any quan- tity of eggs, fruits and vegetables; also more passengers. At Il o'clock we commenced to go slowly through the canal.
 l Suez Is not much of place. A num- Der of rather shabby buildings, plenty of sand and very little green foliage are to be seen. There were several steamers lying outside the entrance, which Is rather wide and irregular, but we soon began to reach the narrow part, where we could throw a stone on the shore each side. The path for the ships Is marked by buoys at every It, tie distance. On the sandy shores there are stone houses for signal stations. It must be miserable place to live in, for there is nothing but sand to be seen. After going some distance there was stone house little distance back; nothing but sand all around it. There were two camels squat in front, and two women and a child standing at the door. The woman came to the waters edge and ran along the bank, keeping up with the ship and making motions for the passengers to give her something. Some of the passengers threw coins, and it was amusing to see the scramble for them The ship only went about five miles an hour. In the course of the day we went through two lakes, a larger and lesser one. It is very monotonous. At night there was a very bright searchlight in the bows which threw light a long way ahead and made the scene, look very weird.
 l stayed in the bows watching until midnight then went to bed tired and woke up in the morning and found we were through the canal at Port Said which is not much of a place; about fifty or sixty buildings facing the sea There were several men-of-war and several steamers lying there. Foul barge-loads of coal came alongside, also many tons of meat and fish It was very amusing to the passengers tc watch the Turks, with their loose frocks and red baggy trousers, running backward and forward handling all the stuff. Our butchers and purser had al they could do to weigh and check of the tons and tons of meat and fish be fore they were lowered into the i'm mense ice room below. Not a soul was allowed to leave the ship on accoun of having passengers on board iron Bombay, which was great disappoint ment to us. We left Port Said at noor for Brindisi THOMAS HURLE.