was so perfectly like water, that it was hard to believe it could be anything else. On returning to the bank, I inquired of some one if it was water that I had seen, and was assured that there was no water in that direction, but that it was a curious appearance in the air. I will leave it to the philosopher to explain this matter. The ruins of what is said to be ancient Heliopolis lie but a short distance from Cairo; we did not, however, visit them; the remains above ground are so few, as hardly to repay the trouble of a ride to them. The sandy deserts are to the east and south of Cairo, and the whole way from that city to Suez on the Red Sea, a distance of about sixty miles, is a cheerless waste of barren sand. The remains of an old canal can be traced, it is said, most of the way from the Nile, a little south of Cairo, to Suez, and it is supposed that it might be reopened. Much has lately been said about the Pasha's making a railroad from Cairo to that point, and I was assured some materials for that purpose were brought from England; but nothing as yet has been done, and probably years will pass before the plan is carried into effect. We had several pleasant interviews with the mission families at Cairo; less, however, than we had hoped, and would have had, but for the sickness of some of their number. They are mostly Germans, in the employ of the Church Missionary Society. Their attention is principally, but not exclusively, directed to the Christian sects in the country. Miss H. has lately, at the special invitation of the Pasha, opened a school in the harem, and is giving instruction to the females of the Pasha's family. Thus far it has been well received; what may be its result, time alone will show. About the time we reached Cairo, several of the missionaries of the Church Missionary Society, who had for some years been labouring in Abyssinia, returned from that country. Some difficulty had arisen, growing out of the intrigues of persons unfriendly to them, which made it advisable for them, for a time at least, to leave that country. It was hoped that before long they would be able to return and resume their labours.