Damietta. Thousands of wild birds, duck of all kinds, ibis and
pelican, fish in the shallows, or with the sea-gulls wheel in dense
masses in the air, for this is a reservation as a breeding-green for
wild-fowl, where they are seldom, if ever, disturbed.

On the left is the Suez Canal, the world's highway to the Far East,
and ships of all nations pass within a stone's throw of your train.
Between, and in strange contrast with the blueness of the canal, runs
a little watercourse, reed fringed, and turbid in its rapid flow.
This is the "sweet-water" canal, and gives its name to one of our
engagements with Arabi's army, and which, from the far-distant Nile,
brings fresh water to supply Port Said and the many stations on its
route.

To the south and east stretches the mournful desert in which the
Israelites began their forty years of wandering, and which thousands
of Moslems annually traverse on their weary pilgrimage to Mecca; while
in all directions is mirage, so perfect in its deception as to mislead
the most experienced of travellers at times.

Roaming over the desert which hems in the delta, solitary shepherds,
strangely clad and wild-looking, herd their flocks of sheep and goats
which browse upon the scrub. These are the descendants of those same
Ishmaelites who sold Joseph into Egypt, and the occasional encampment
of some Bedouin tribe shows us something of the life which the
patriarchs might have led.

In contrast with the desert, the delta appears very green and fertile,
for we are quickly in the land of Goshen, most beautiful, perhaps, of
all the delta provinces.