Читать книгу An Australian Ramble; Or, A Summer in Australia онлайн

17 страница из 28

The principal event after leaving the Straits of Messina is the appearance of Crete, by the side of which, with her snowy-capped mountains, we steamed for about five hours. From her rocky foreground, resting on the blue waves, rise three mountain ridges, the chief of which ‘is many-founted Ida,’ towering 8,000 feet above the sea. As a caution to travellers, let me assure them how much one of Smith’s dictionaries would be appreciated. Smith, it may be, is correct, but he is pedantic. Lemprière would, perhaps, be better; in the home of legendary lore it is not wise to be over-critical. The Orient Company publishes a guide-book, but it is of little practical use, though it contains an immense amount of information, some excellent maps, and is a marvel of cheapness. You rarely get in such books what you really want to know. We have a professor on board, but professors nowadays are somewhat common. Men who shave and cut corns—men who examine your head, who risk their necks in parachutes, who excel in gymnastics, are called, or call themselves, professors; and I, perhaps because I know no better—probably it is so—may be a little sceptical as to the class. I always think of Barry Cornwall’s lines in which he speaks of