162 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



to a place from which we were shown a lovely little 

 islet, set like a jewel in the glittering blue sea, and 

 covered with white houses and dark cypresses. This, 

 we were assured, was the very rock into which the 

 ship of Alcinous was turned by angry Poseidon on 

 its way back from. Ithaca, after conveying Odysseus 

 to his native shore ! For Corfu, let it be remem- 

 bered, is said by some to have been the seat of that 

 wealthy Phseacian empire whose praises Homer sung 

 in the olden time. 



About five o'clock in the afternoon, on April 3, we 

 took steamer for Zante. Between six and seven 

 the sun began to sink behind Corfu, and colours both 

 gorgeous and delicate were diffused over the whole 

 scene. Above the sun the sky was a rich orange, 

 the coast beneath a deep purple. The hills of 

 Albania, massed behind us, showed a fainter colour, 

 through a kind of haze of light, which yet left the 

 outlines quite distinct. The mainland on our left 

 was rosy pink ; the sky above a pale blue ; the sea a 

 dark slaty blue, melting, as time went on, into black- 

 ness. By ten o'clock the sea had become perfectly 

 calm, and looked like a great lake. The hills of 

 Corfu grew black, the mainland and sea a dull grey, 

 till at length, in the west, the light died away, 

 leaving but a faint gleam to mark where the sun had 

 gone down. 



All this was very lovely, and quite fulfilled one's 

 idea of what Greece and the Greek islands should 



