[Illustration: PREACHING IN A MOSQUE.] The principal attraction in the mosque was a group to whom a mollah, or priest, was delivering a lecture. The speaker stood in a high pulpit which was reached by a small ladder, and his hearers stood below him or squatted on the floor. What he said was unintelligible to our friends, as he was speaking in Arabic, which was to them an unknown tongue. The audience was apparently interested in his remarks, and paid no attention to the strangers except to scowl at them. In some of the mosques of the East Christians are not admitted; this was the rule half a century ago, but at present it is very generally broken down, and the hated infidel may visit the mosques of the principal cities of Egypt and Turkey, provided he pays for the privilege. They returned to the hotel in season for dinner. The evening was passed in the house, and the party went to bed in good season, as they were to leave at eight o'clock in the morning for Cairo. They were at the station in due time for departure, and found the train was composed of carriages after the English pattern, in charge of a native conductor who spoke French. By judiciously presenting him with a rupee they secured a compartment to themselves. While they were waiting for the train to move on the Doctor told the boys about the "overland route" through Egypt. "The route that was established by Lieutenant Waghorn was by steamship from England to Alexandria, and thence by river steamboats along the Nile to Cairo. From Cairo, ninety miles, to Suez the road was directly through the desert, and passengers were carried in small omnibuses, drawn by horses, which were changed at stations ten or fifteen miles apart. Water for supplying these stations was carried from the Nile and kept in tanks, and it was a matter of heavy expense to maintain the stations. The omnibus road was succeeded by the railway, opened in 1857, and the water for the locomotives was carried by the trains, as there was not a drop to be had along the route. This railway was abandoned and the track torn up after the construction of the Canal, as the expense of maintaining it was very great. In addition to the cost of carrying water was that of keeping the track clear of sand, which was drifted by the wind exactly as snow is drifted in the Northern States of America, and sometimes the working of the road was suspended for several days by the sand-drifts. The present railway follows the banks of the Maritime Canal as far as Ismailia, and thence it goes along the Fresh-Water Canal, of which I will tell you. "The idea of a canal to connect the Mediterranean and Red Seas is by no means a modern one." "Yes," said Frank, "I have read somewhere that the first Napoleon in 1799 thought of making a canal between the two seas, and his engineers surveyed the route for it." "You are quite right," responded the Doctor, "but there was a canal long before the time of Napoleon, or rather there have been several canals."