during the pilgrimage-season must bank their fires, ever ready to
run out. True; but it has been shown that Sharm Dumayghah, the
best of its kind, lies only thirty knots to the north. The
second, want of water, or of good water, is even less cogent. We
have seen that the seaboard wells supply the poorer classes and
animals; and we shall presently see the Fort-wells, which, in
their day, have watered caravans containing twenty to thirty
thousand thirsty men and beasts. So far from the condensers being
a failure, the tank still holds about twenty tons of distilled
water, although it gives drink to some thirty mouths composing
the establishment. Finally, the old steamer has done its duty
well, and, like the proverbial Marine, is still ready to do its
duty again.[EN#44]

Thus the expense of laying out the quarantine-ground at El-Wijh
has been pitifully wasted. That, however, is a very small matter;
the neglect of choosing a proper position is serious, even
ominous. Unlike Tor, nothing can be healthier or freer from fever
than the pilgrims' plateau. From El-Wijh, too, escape is
hopeless: the richest would not give a piastre to levant;
because, if a solitary traveller left the caravan, a Bedawi
bullet would soon prevail on him to stop. This, then, should be
the first long halt for the "compromised" travelling northwards.
When contagious disease has completely disappeared, the second
precautionary delay might be either at Tor or, better still, at
the "Wells of Moses" ('Uyun Musa), near the head of the Suez
Gulf: here sanitary conditions are far more favourable; and here
supplies, including medical comforts, would be cheaper as well as
more abundant. Briefly, it is my conviction that, under present
circumstances, "Tor" is a standing danger, not only to Egypt, but