“The exports chiefly consist of English and native ‘grey domestics,’ bleached Madipilams, Paisley lappets, and muslins for turbands; the remainder being Manchester prints, antimony, Syrian soap, iron in bars, and common ironmongery, Venetian or Trieste beads, used as ornaments in Arabia and Abyssinia, writing paper, Tarbushes, Papushes (slippers), and other minor articles of dress and ornament.”

“The average annual temperature of the year at Suez is 67° Fahrenheit.  The extremes of heat and cold are found in January and August; during the former month the thermometer ranges from a minimum of 38° to a maximum of 68°; during the latter the variation extends from 68° to 102°, or even to 104°, when the heat becomes oppressive.  Departures from these extremes are rare.  I never remember to have seen the thermometer rise above 108° during the severest Khamsin, or to have sunk below 34° in the rawest wintry wind.  Violent storms come up from the south in March.  Rain is very variable[FN#32]: 

[p.181] sometimes three years have passed without a shower, whereas in 1841 torrents poured for nine successive days, deluging the town, and causing many buildings to fall.”

“The population of Suez now numbers about 4,800.  As usual in Mohammedan countries no census is taken here.  Some therefore estimate the population at 6,000.  Sixteen years ago it was supposed to be under 3,000.  After that time it rapidly increased till 1850, when a fatal attack of cholera reduced it to about half its previous number.  The average mortality is about twelve a month.[FN#33] The endemic diseases are fevers of typhoid and intermittent types in spring, when strong northerly winds cause the waters of the bay to recede,[FN#34] and leave a miasma-breeding swamp exposed to the rays of the sun.  In the months of October and November febrile attacks are violent; ophthalmia more so.  The eye-disease is not so general here as at Cairo, but the symptoms are more acute; in some years it becomes a virulent epidemic, which ends either in total blindness or in a partial opacity of the cornea, inducing dimness of vision, and a permanent weakness of the eyes.  In one month three of my acquaintances lost their sight.  Dysenteries are also common, and so are bad boils, or rather ulcers.  The cold season is not unwholesome, and at this period the

[p.182] pure air of the Desert restores and invigorates the heat-wasted frame.”

“The walls, gates, and defences of Suez are in a ruinous state, being no longer wanted to keep out the Sinaitic Badawin.  The houses are about 500 in number, but many of the natives prefer occupying the upper stories of the Wakalahs, the rooms on the ground floor serving for stores to certain merchandise, wood, dates, cotton, &c.  The Suezians live well, and their bazar is abundantly stocked with meat and clarified butter brought from Sinai, and fowls, corn, and vegetables from the Sharkiyah province; fruit is supplied by Cairo as well as by the Sharkiyah,