e 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."

The steamer passed through the Balah Lakes; for there are several of
them, containing some islands. The canal is protected by high banks of
yellow sand, and beyond is the desert, with hills in the distance.
Coming out of the lakes, the canal passed through a deep cutting, which
was the worst place encountered in doing the work. It is the highest
ground on the isthmus, averaging fifty-two feet above the sea; and a
ridge of this territory is from seventy to one hundred feet high,
through which the digging had to be carried. There are some curves here,
the canal is the narrowest in all its course, and vessels more
frequently get aground here than in any other portion. The road to Syria
passed over this elevation, which is called "the causeway" in Arabic.

The Ophir went through without sticking in the sand, and the
Guardian-Mother was likely to do as well. A solitary mosque and a chalet
of the Khedive were passed, and the ship was approaching Lake Timsah
when the gong sounded for lunch, and the air of the desert had given the
tourists an appetite which caused them to evacuate the promenade with
hasty steps.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE MYSTERIOUS ARAB IN A NEW SUIT

The cabin party of the Guardian-Mother were on the promenade in time to
observe the entrance into Lake Timsah. It is near the seventy-five
kilometre post from Port Said, or half way through the canal to the head
of the Gulf of Suez, the most northern portion of the Red Sea. The city
of Suez is several miles to the south-west of this point; for Lesseps,
for some reason said to be political, avoided the old town, and carried
the canal to the other side of the inlet, and below it.

Lake Timsah has an area of about six square miles. It is not a deep body
of water, and the canal had to be built through it as through Lake
Menzaleh. Its water is now of a pale blue, very pretty to look at.
Before any work was done here, it was a mere pond,