Читать книгу The Sea Road to the East, Gibraltar to Wei-hai-wei. Six Lectures Prepared for the Visual Instruction Committee of the Colonial Office онлайн

13 страница из 21

Yet all is not bare and dry, as we shall see if we continue 15 our tour of the peninsula. We drive through the old south gate to the Alameda gardens, the beauty spot of 16 Gibraltar. Here are shaded walks and open spaces as in an English park, though many of the plants are strange to us. But we are even here reminded of the fortress, 17 since on the level parade ground we see the troops of the garrison at drill in the cool of the early morning. Our 18 road runs through a grove of trees; there is the southern suburb in front of us, and below as we turn round is spread 19 out the harbour and dockyard, with the calm bay of Algeciras beyond. We pass more old fortifications spanning 20 the road, and come out above Europa point, the southern outlook of the Rock. Here is the lighthouse, which we 21 saw from the steamer, standing on the low cliffs. We have left the trees behind us and all is bare and windswept; but the fresh breeze brings relief after the stifling heat of the town, and so in this corner the Governor 22 has his summer cottage. Here is a view taken from it. We continue our walk round the eastern side of the point, 23 past the old batteries, only to find that the path ends suddenly, where the hill comes sheer down into the sea. As we have a special permit, let us climb the heights and see what is beyond the corner. The narrow ridge 24 with its sharp peaks stretches away to the north; we are looking along its steep eastern slope. Down below, in a little hollow, hemmed in by the sea and the hill, is 25 the village of Catalan Bay, with its colony of Genoese fishermen, descendants of those who settled on the Rock when the Spanish inhabitants left it two centuries ago. 26 Here are the fishermen and their boats at close quarters. Beyond the bay is a long line of surf beating on the low eastern shore of the isthmus, and in the distance, hidden by the mists, the range of the Sierra Nevada. On the 27 middle peak is the signal station, with the old wall of Charles V. running down the hillside; and behind it the aërial line joining the station to the town. Here ends our journey. The signal station is the eye of Gibraltar, ever watching the sea and the Strait, and ready to give instant warning of an enemy’s coming to the guns and ships below.