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dealer in cigarettes and post cards I send you a sample of his wares.
This will be finished in the morning and sent from Port Said on its journey south.
Canan 12-1-15, 12-30 a.m. We are off again under orders for somewhere else. Suez is as when you looked upon it a few years. All the modern houses have sloping red tiled roofs, while those constructed anciently have flat roofs. The new part of Suez mostly on the island constructed by the canal company out of the silt elevated and tipped during the construction of the adjacent portion of the waterway. The springs of Moses to the left of the town and behind it from where we look, are the source of a luxuriant growth of palm trees, forming a green belt across the desert. It is said that on many areas fruit and vegetables of many kinds flourish luxuriantly.
When fairly in the canal the third sign of war at once came into view. Viz. soldiers on active service fortifying areas on either side, some here some there, constructing earth works digging trenches, rifle pits, gun emplacements, wire entanglements, &c. Their rifles are piled close handy, giving an appearance indicative of the seriousness of the work which is in hand. I asked one English officer at one point – Who are you? He replied – The 26th Punjanbies. [possibly Punjabies] – Good. The Oasis of Chalouf, on the left hand side of the canal was a strip of green some miles in extent. On the Arabian side is the desert of
3-45 p.m. We are in the Bitter lakes. It is through these that Moses is supposed to have passed when he was followed by Pharoes hosts who were enveloped by the waters & destroyed. The waters, opened for the Israelites, formed a wall on either side of them.