perceived in walking to and from the station; but, as I learned,
they carried nothing but the labourers working on the line, and the
water sent into the Desert for their use. It struck me forcibly at
the time that I should not have liked to have money in that
investment.

Well; I went with Robinson to Suez. The journey, like everything
else in Egypt, was sandy, hot, and unpleasant. The railway
carriages were pretty fair, and we had room enough; but even in them
the dust was a great nuisance. We travelled about ten miles an
hour, and stopped about an hour at every ten miles. This was
tedious, but we had cigars with us and a trifle of brandy and water;
and in this manner the railway journey wore itself away. In the
middle of the night, however, we were moved from the railway
carriages into omnibuses, as they were called, and then I was not
comfortable. These omnibuses were wooden boxes, placed each upon a
pair of wheels, and supposed to be capable of carrying six
passengers. I was thrust into one with Robinson, his wife and five
children, and immediately began to repent of my good-nature in
accompanying them. To each vehicle were attached four horses or
mules, and I must acknowledge that as on the railway they went as
slow as possible, so now in these conveyances, dragged through the
sand, they went as fast as the beasts could be made to gallop. I
remember the Fox Tally-ho coach on the Birmingham road when Boyce
drove it, but as regards pace the Fox Tally-ho was nothing to these
machines in Egypt. On the first going off I was jolted right on to
Mrs. R. and her infant; and for a long time that lady thought that
the child had been squeezed out of its proper shape; but at last we
arrived at Suez, and the baby seemed to me to be all right when it
was handed down into the boat at Suez.