Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1904 edition. Excerpt: ... FROM LIVERPOOL TO ABYDOS. Winter in England--November in Liverpool--Lime Street Station at five in the morning--and a crowd of sleep-bewildered travellers turned out of their warm train to shiver and bustle under the dark, echoing canopy of smoke-stained glass and iron girders. Follows a breakfast with piping hot coffee and rolls before a cosy fire and a view of clanging, rumbling, brightly lighted cars tearing through the foggy streets, bearing their freight of human grist to the mill of the working day. Then, as the light increases, the massive buildings loom out of the smoke, the street lights fade and soon we find ourselves at the Landing Stage watching the rush and turmoil of the muddy water and the morning crowd of business men and women disembarking from the ferries. Through the curling chilly mist a glowing blood-red disc lifts slowly into the sky, the muddy water turns to molten iron, the ship lights disappear and thus the blue light of the morning breaks upon the port. A fortnight of sea voyage soon passes. The green waves of the tossing channel, the rolling of Atlantic billows in "the Bay," the clear blue waters of the Mediterranean wash by us and turn to silver foam. Gibraltar in its sunny verdure, the blue smoke and the dark woods among the African hills, dry, burnt up Malta, in its livery of yellow dust, yellow houses and yellow uniforms are left behind. The monstrous tramp of the engines ceases in the star-lit night. Far down in the depths of the ship are heard the short sharp pulsebeats of the dynamo engines and the clatter of a furnace door; else all on board is still. A breath of warm air from off the land brings to our ears the far off sound of barking dogs. The lights of Ras el Tin fort zig-zag towards us across the...