The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1908-01-05

one on top of the other could be sunken
into the strait of Babel Mandeb and
leave plenty of water above for the
deepest ocean steamer to go over them
Hot and Salty.
The Red Sea is red hot. I have steamed
many miles along the equator, but this
J lis much hotter The water here is shut
in on both sides by deserts, which furnish
no streams to cool 1t, and the tropical
sun beats down from January TO De-
eember. As a result the surface of the
water is often 100 degrees above zero,
and il forms a great hot-water plant
steaming the air The suns rays are
bottled up also by the deserts, which act
as a second heat radiating plant. Ihe
result is that the air is often surocatng
and there seems TO be only waving
sheet of blue steel between us and the
lower regions Indeed were it not for the
electric fan in my cabin l should be I'M
able to write and outside upon deck we
have double roofs of canvas to temper
the RAYS of the sun Last night many
of the passengers slept outside their CAP
ms on account of the heat. We eat our
meals famed by electricity, and yesterday
we had a sandstone, which covered our
shin with red hot dust, and even entered
tha northoles and got into the oeds.
That storm came from Arabai and 1t may
have swallowed up some of the pilgrims
now on their way to Mecca
The air here is so salty that one can al
most eat eggs without seasoning. Inc
water contains so much salt that If 100
pounds of 1t are boiled down, four pounds
of salt will be found in the bottom Of the
kettle. The evaporation is so great that
were il not for the inflow of the Flndian
ocean. the sea would, within less than
century. 60 into the air and leave IN It's
place one immense block of salt IN
deed these waters are more Salty tnan
those of the ocean, and they are salllet
than the Mediterranean and most other
salt seas.
Suez in 1907.
had expected to find the Red sea
coasts more thicllly populated. There are
no cities of any size and very few VII
lagos. Even suez has only about $1,000
people. and of them not more than 3Uoo
are Europeans. The town has large
docks. but its trade is small, and 1t has
had nothing like the growth which men
thought would follow the completion OF
the canal There is direct railroad con-
nection with Cairo. and passengers on
their way home from India stop off there
and join their. ships at Alexandra. or
take other steamers from that port
kosier and Its Mines.
Have You ever heard of the town OF
Kosierq II is a Red sea port that at
one time had great trade. 1t lies on the
west coast some distance south of Suez.
1t was formerly the end of caravan
route from the Nile, and the early Chris
tians crossed over that way and took
boats for the Sinai peninsula to reach the
mountain where Moses received the COM
mandments.
Today Kosier is a stopping place for
Egyptian pilgrims on their way to JED
dab 1t used to be much more important
in that respect than now. 1t had many
inns and hotel tents outside. 1t was well
supplied with dancing girls and the other
surroundings of a true pilgrimage cen
ter. The port is now nothing. Its big
houses have fallen to ruins and 1t has
become a village of one-story huts. There
are emerald mines near it, however, and
the desert region about shows evidences
of having been once worked for gold
Port Sudan.
The two chief ports on the west coast
of the Red sea are Port Sudan and Sua-
| kim They were nothing a few years
| ago but they promise to grow into cities
| since the completion of the Red sea road.
| There has always been something of a
| town at Suakim, and the original inten-
ton was to use that place as the ter
| minus of the railway. The English sur
veyors however. found much better
harbor at Port Sudan, and they have ex-
tended the railroad to that point The
town, which was absolutely nothing two