The morning found us still in sight of land, but gradually it faded away on our starboard bow until, on the following morning, the coast-line had vanished and we steamed along on a glassy sea and beneath a cloudless sky. I remember I had the forenoon watch, and from my post on the bridge I could see the flying fish leaping away on either side as our ship forged her way through the deep blue waters, and a shark appeared on our port bow, swimming lazily alongside, his dorsal fin every now and then breaking the surface into tiny ripples. The water was so clear that every detail of his long, wicked-looking body was distinctly visible. That evening we sighted Cape Blanco, and shortly after dark passed between the lights of Cape Bon and the southern point of Sicily. CHAPTER VII FROM EGYPT TO MOMBASA AT 2 a.m. on the following morning we stopped both engines just outside Valetta Harbour; the guard-boat came alongside and gave us instructions to proceed to Port Said, and there, after an uneventful voyage, we duly arrived three days later. Entering the harbour at sunrise, and passing between the long breakwaters which run out into the sea to mark the dredged channel, we anchored close to the eastern shore. Then lighters, filled with coal and manned by natives, came alongside and were secured four to each side of the ship. Presently gang-planks were placed between the inboard lighters and the deck, and the natives filled little baskets with coal, balanced them on their heads, ran up the gang-planks and tipped the coal into the bunkers. It was our first experience of Eastern methods—frankly we thought them rather finicky! However they got the coaling finished by 2 o’clock and we asked the Commander for leave to go ashore. This, however, he firmly refused, and made us draw a section of the ship instead, which seemed adding insult to injury! Note by Mother: _Half-a-score of wild middies on the loose at Port Said of all places!_ What _a wise commander!_ In the evening we weighed anchor and, taking on a pilot, proceeded through the Canal. Great expanses of open water, broken occasionally by long sand-spits, stretched away on either side. The banks of the Canal are raised some six feet above the water level and are about twenty feet wide. On our starboard, or the Egyptian side, ran a caravan road overshadowed by plane and palm trees, and we saw several camels being driven along by Arabs in picturesque flowing garments. Presently the sun dipped below the horizon and turned the wide expanse of water to the colour of blood. Gradually this faded away and slowly disappeared, and only a beautiful rosy glow was left in the sky above us.