Even to one fresh from the azure atmosphere of the Campanian Bay, the sky was marvellously clear.

The water was of a soft green tint, that shaded off here and there into dark cerulean.

The wind was blowing in cool puffs out of the north.

A long, slow swell made the stately triremes rock gracefully.

Before them, in clear view, rose the tall tower of the Pharos,--the lighthouse of Alexandria,--and beyond it, on the low-lying mainland, rose in splendid relief against the cloudless sky the glittering piles and fanes of the city of the Ptolemies.