"Iron boys!" exclaimed the good lady. "How could they point out the way through the canal?"
"They swim in the water, and the pilots understand the language they speak," said the commander gravely.
"Iron boys that swim and speak!" ejaculated the excellent lady. "I think you must be fooling with us, Captain Ringgold."
"You have put your foot in it again!" exclaimed Mrs. Belgrave in a whisper. "Don't say another word!"
"A buoy is a floating body in the shape of two inverted cones united at their bases, made of copper or plate iron. They are used all over the world to mark the bounds of channels, sometimes with fog-bells on them, rung by the action of the waves," continued the commander. "They are moored to the bottom here as elsewhere, and have a gas-light burning on them all the time."
"A gas-light!" exclaimed Mrs. Woolridge; "where is the gas-house?"
"There are several of them on the canal, and not one for each buoy, which is filled with gas, and contains a supply that will last for six weeks. Some folks who never went to sea suppose a lighthouse is to give light on the water, when they are only to mark certain localities, and to give ranges to navigators. These buoys are for the same purpose, and not to light up the canal. But here is El Kantara."
"I think you said this place was on the road to Syria," said the magnate. "People who go to the Holy Land from Egypt, and most of them do go that way, take a steamer from Alexandria to Joppa, or Jaffa as it is now generally called, and do not go by camel-back over this road."
"They do not; but they may go over it at some time in the near future," added Professor Giroud. "The Egypto-Syrian Railroad has been projected, and it is to pass over this route."
The travellers found quite a village at El Kantara, with a hotel, and other places for the refreshment of travellers. Passengers from the steamers seldom land here. The ship proceeded on her way, and the party caught a glimpse at a boat-load of camels crossing the canal. From this place to Fort Said the course had been perfectly straight through Lake Menzaleh, which ends here.
"If you will look to the left," said the commander after a time, "you will see a considerable body of water. That is the upper part of Lake Balah, through which the canal passes. About a mile and a half distant is a lot of sandstone rocks like that of the Memnon statues. They appear to belong to an altar, and the inscription informs the visitor who can read it that they were parts of a temple erected by Seti I. in honor of his father, Ramses I., and completed by Ramses II., his son. There may have been a city here, but there are no signs of it now."