It will be observed that the Red Sea heads the list. I will mention, before quitting this subject, that recent inquiries indicate a slight decrease of salts for great depths in the ocean.

Not only through the Straits of Gibraltar, but all along the African coast far into the Levant, runs an easterly current, which is described as having sometimes a velocity of three or four knots off the coast of Egypt. ‡ In the immediate neighborhood of Port Saïd the observations taken since the canal was commenced, which I inspected, showed only occasional velocities as high as one knot, the mean scarcely exceeding half a knot. Easterly winds, when violent, reverse the stream all the way to the Atlantic.

: Although the coast of Egypt is low, with little to distinguish the land-fall, it has but few outlying shoals. There are no dangers beyond the general sweep of the twelve-fathom curve, which is nowhere more than ten miles from shore. The fiftyfathom curve lies but six miles off Alexandria, fifteen miles off the mouth of the Rosetta, twenty-one miles off Cape Bourlos, and twenty-one miles off the mouth of the Damietta. The lead is therefore a safe and indispensable guide to the navigator. The Egyptian Government is about to place first-class lights at Abou-Kir, at Cape Bourlos, at the mouth of the Damietta, and at the extremity of the great mole at Port Saïd.

The winds upon the coast of Egypt are principally from the northwest quadrant from the middle of May to the middle of October. They are variable in November, but in December and January winds from the southwest quadrant predominate.

The smaller quantity is from observations by the Suez Canal engineers. The larger from Dr. Marcet. (Phil. Trans., 1819.)

†The smaller quantity is from my own observations in mid-ocean, the larger from Dr. Marcet. Those that follow are all from Dr. Marcet.

Considérations Générales sur la Mer Méditerranée, par A. le Gras. I presume hese estimates are exaggerated.

In February the winds are again variable, while in March and April the northeast quadrant yields the prevailing winds. I have arranged in the table which follows the number of days in the year in which the wind blows from sixteen points of the compass at Port Said; and I have added, for comparison, the results from Ismaïlia, in the middle of the Isthmus, and from Suez, on the Red Sea.

The Ship Canal, connecting the Mediterranean by an open. channel with the Red Sea, is eighty-seven and a half nautical miles in length, with an average width exceeding three hundred feet, and a minimum depth of twenty-six feet below the mean level of the sea.* It follows a slightly winding course through the greatest natural depressions of the desert from Port Saïd, upon the east flank of the Nile Delta, to the roadstead of Suez. The original design of crossing the Isthmus at its narrowest section was abandoned, because of the shallow water found in the projected approach from the Mediterranean; but the distance along the present route is only about ten per cent greater than it would have been if the northern entrance had been fixed at Peluse, as was first proposed. About midway between the two seas the Ship Canal is met by a fresh-water canal from the Nile, and beyond this the two run along within sight of each other as far as the harbor of Suez.

The aspect of the country may be described in a word, - it is a desert in the extreme signification of the term. Its shallow lagoons, its flint-covered plains, its travelling dunes, and its ancient sea basins belong to and complete its desert character. It is not totally devoid of vegetation; here and there a lonely tamarisk, magnified by the mirage, meets the eye of the traveller, but this only serves to give effect to the scene of desolation about him.

* I use nautical miles (6,086 feet) whenever not otherwise stated.

The climate is healthy and agreeable. Although the sands heat up occasionally to 130° Fahrenheit, the extreme summer temperature of the air in the shade does not exceed that of Boston, reaching 95° at Ismaïlia last August. The summer temperature at the central station just named has a mean of 81°, the autumn of 67°, the winter of 59°, and the spring of 72°. The summer nights are cool, and there is nearly always a refreshing breeze. The heat of summer days brings with it no lassitude, for the air is still invigorating and delightful to breathe. Sunstrokes occur among those who refuse to wear proper covering, but the turban, or a woollen shawl thrown over the head and shoulders, is an effectual protection.

There were twenty-seven rainy days at Ismaïlia in 1868, and the total rain-fall was one inch and a quarter for the whole of last year. At Port Saïd there is more rain and at Suez less.

It is only in March and April that the khamseen may be expected upon the Isthmus. The word "khamseen" signifies fifty, — the liability to this southerly wind being limited to fifty days, but it rarely lasts more than twenty-four hours at a time. When this wind blows from the southeast it brings with it sulphurous fumes, which are very oppressive, causing at times ophthalmia, cephalalgia, and dysentery, together with depression of spirits. The brutes are affected by it as well as man, and the grain wilts, as described in Pharaoh's dream. Happily the poisonous khamseen rarely lasts beyond sunset.

The harbor of Port Said is altogether artificial, there having been no natural protection for vessels here whatever. It consists of two basins, one lying outside and the other inside of the natural shore-line, the former protected by moles, the latter excavated in the sandy border of Lake Menzaleh.

The moles of the outer port are of unequal length and of very unequal importance. The western, which may be regarded as the windward mole, stretches out nearly at right angles to the original shore-line for a distance of 7,150 feet, then, deflecting to the eastward about twelve degrees, runs on 1,050 feet, to the twenty-six-feet curve of soundings as originally found. Ultimately this mole is to receive a further extension of 2,300 feet. Its general direction is northwest, and, as we have seen, its total length will be about two statute miles. The eastern mole