1938 - The Vasculum

3
and Oleanders flamed out. There, too, were to be admired end- less Palms,
Lantanas, She Oaks (Casuarina) and Cassias, the latter still decorated with
their enormous pods. These were varied by a magnificent tree with large,
leathery, oval leaves and glorious yellow flowers which I failed to
recognise. At intervals, too, low Heliotrope and taller Acacia hedges
attracted one's attention. Again, in a shady garden reserved for women and
children, huge Eucalypti, laden with fruits, seemed perfectly at home.
Despite this wealth of vegetation, insects, even flies, were very
rare, one species of ant, a few Diptera and a solitary Humming Bird Hawk
alone being seen. The latter, as usual, haunted the hottest walls, which it
deserted at times to probe the purple trumpets of the Morning Glories.
Our stay here was short, and soon we were heading for the Suez
Canal. To the east of the entrance, we saw that strangest of strange sights,
the coaling of a ship by human labour alone. Like ants in a nest, to the
sound of melancholy music, hundreds of men went in endless procession
with baskets of coal on their heads-and this in the hottest of hot suns!
Soon we were in the canal itself, which is about as monotonous a
sight as one could conceive. To the east lies the desert bare and dismal
looking, whilst to the west stretch enormous lagoons, nowhere more than
two feet deep, but still covered with fishing boats and crowds of birds,
flamingoes, storks, pelicans, etc., all being represented. Between the
lagoons and the canal passes the railway and near it are belts of feathery
Papyrus, interspersed with Tamarisks and Acacias. For miles this type of
scenery prevailed, although once, a few miles north of El Kantara, the
terminus of the Jerusalem Railway, we caught sight of a group of Arabs
with three camels, and just before that event a Monarch Butterfly (Danais
chrysippus) dashed aboard.
Then sunset approached, and across the desert we saw a truly
magnificent spectacle of the gorgeous sun sinking slowly in the midst of
masses of red, purple and gold.
El Kantara itself, a little town not unpleasantly situated amidst
innumerable belts of Casuarinas, Eucalypti, etc., was reached as darkness
finally closed in. Its groups of electric lights, however, served to remind us
that we lived in the twentieth century.