Page:H. D. Traill - From Cairo to the Soudan Frontier.djvu/19



It is two hours since we picked our way between Scylla and Charybdis—no such mighty difficult feat to the navigators of to-day as it so strangely seems to have been to the sailors of the ancient world—and settled down for our two days further run to our Egyptian port. Reggio and Messina have long since disappeared; the spurs of Etna, which almost challenged comparison with their parent height as we were issuing from the Straits, have dwindled into knolls and hillocks, and for well-nigh an hour the great bare cone has stood out black and solitary against the deep orange of the western sky. Sicily itself has A