DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1035#0635
588 ON THE COMMUNICATION
and after stating their respective claims, I shall leave the
reader to judge which of the two is to be preferred.
The distance from Sooez to the Nile, at Boolaq, the port
of Qaherah (Cairo), is a little more than eighty miles,* and
passengers might embark, or goods might be put into boats,
at Boolaq, and be immediately forwarded to Alexandria or
Rasheed (Rosetta) by native boats. The road is good
from Sooez, and there is no great objection on the score of
water; but the passage up the narrow Gulf of Sooez, I
mean that part of the Arabian Gulf, or Red Sea, north of
Ras Mohammed, is not at all times safe or feasible even
for a steam-boat; and the delays occasioned there by the
violence of the north-west wind render it highly desirable
that some method should be adopted for avoiding this
portion of the Gulf. The position of Kossayr not only
remedies this inconvenience, but is in other respects equally
eligible with that of Sooez; and the additional dangers of
the reefs in the northern parts of the Red Sea, and the
expense and trouble of having another deposit of coal at
Sooez, are also avoided.
The distance from Kossayr to the Nile at Qeneh, by the
road, is about 119 miles, or to Coptos only 108; from
Coptos to Boolaq 478; and thence to Rasheed 154,f or to
Alexandria by the Nile and the canal 185 miles. The
Kossayr road to Qeneh is level and good, and indeed the
* In p. 320 I have reckoned 74 by the shortest possible way, but
the actual distance traversed by camels on the usual road is 78£
miles to the eastern walls of the city.
+ Or to the mouth of the Nile about 160. The distances from the
second cataract to the sea, given in p. 499, are taken from my own
map, with the exception of those from Wadee Halfeh to E'Sooan,
and from El Qaherah to Rasheed; and on referring to a larger map
than the one I had an opportunity of consulting, I find that instead
of 219 miles for the former I ought to have allowed 260, and 154 or
160 for the latter, making a total of 1041 or 1051, from Wadee
Halfeh to the sea.
and after stating their respective claims, I shall leave the
reader to judge which of the two is to be preferred.
The distance from Sooez to the Nile, at Boolaq, the port
of Qaherah (Cairo), is a little more than eighty miles,* and
passengers might embark, or goods might be put into boats,
at Boolaq, and be immediately forwarded to Alexandria or
Rasheed (Rosetta) by native boats. The road is good
from Sooez, and there is no great objection on the score of
water; but the passage up the narrow Gulf of Sooez, I
mean that part of the Arabian Gulf, or Red Sea, north of
Ras Mohammed, is not at all times safe or feasible even
for a steam-boat; and the delays occasioned there by the
violence of the north-west wind render it highly desirable
that some method should be adopted for avoiding this
portion of the Gulf. The position of Kossayr not only
remedies this inconvenience, but is in other respects equally
eligible with that of Sooez; and the additional dangers of
the reefs in the northern parts of the Red Sea, and the
expense and trouble of having another deposit of coal at
Sooez, are also avoided.
The distance from Kossayr to the Nile at Qeneh, by the
road, is about 119 miles, or to Coptos only 108; from
Coptos to Boolaq 478; and thence to Rasheed 154,f or to
Alexandria by the Nile and the canal 185 miles. The
Kossayr road to Qeneh is level and good, and indeed the
* In p. 320 I have reckoned 74 by the shortest possible way, but
the actual distance traversed by camels on the usual road is 78£
miles to the eastern walls of the city.
+ Or to the mouth of the Nile about 160. The distances from the
second cataract to the sea, given in p. 499, are taken from my own
map, with the exception of those from Wadee Halfeh to E'Sooan,
and from El Qaherah to Rasheed; and on referring to a larger map
than the one I had an opportunity of consulting, I find that instead
of 219 miles for the former I ought to have allowed 260, and 154 or
160 for the latter, making a total of 1041 or 1051, from Wadee
Halfeh to the sea.