| Description | They are in harbour and their passage has been 'wonderfully smooth', the Mediterranean behaving like a lake. They have an extra day therefore and do not know where to begin sightseeing. [From 26 December] They decided to go on to Suez, with letters of introduction to the canal officials and the Consul, but were informed that that was no train that night and so stayed in Alexandria. He discusses 180 degrees of longitude as the line marking the change in day of the week and encloses a sketch of the Suez Canal, which the French engineers promise to have open by 1 October 1869. [John Robinson] McClear, the English representative on the project, thinks that a single breadth will not be enough to supply the evaporation of the great lakes's surface and it will be necessary to detour around them. William describes their travels through Paris, after their Channel journey had been so demoralising, and Pankhurst's departure from the ship. In Paris, they went to see the almost completed Louvre, the building 'a marvel of centralization', with the powers of the State so close together that 'a decent aerolite falling there would well nigh murder France'. They visited Nadar [Gaspard-Félix Tournachon] 'the great balloon man' now turned photographer to have the baby photographed, and he took eleven images before he was satisfied. English photographers are unequal to this, he thinks, but French photographers are perfection. He is looking out for news of the English Admiral of the Turkish fleet [Augustus Charles Hobart Hamden] about whom the French press have been acid. William thinks the Admiral was in the wrong for using force within Greek waters without any declaration of war, but his sympathy is not with the Greeks. William notes that Mrs Basil Hall is on board [Grace, the wife of Captain Basil Simouth de Ros Hall] and she and Emma are considering a visit to the Pasha's harem.
With a sketch map of the Suez Canal, from Port Said to the Red Sea; and a pasted-on slip with drawings of the globe, highlighting places and dates. The latter headed: 'Places referred to the Equator at the Equinox'. |