Series 03: John Brady Nash letters, January 1914-December 1915 - Page 604
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[Page 604]
each class being represented by vessels of varying sizes. A small submarine flying a French flag crossed behind our stern and went quietly up the harbour, the gentle onward movement suggested the progress of a swan with the head & neck level with the water's surface. The Captain told me last night that the latest of these fighting machines has a radius of 3000 miles and can pass at the rate of 18 miles on the surface of the water.
The ice chest is close to my cabin window & every time the door is opened the odour from the cheese which is stored within it is horrid. Such material should be destroyed.
The land, around the waters, is gently sloping to high ridges, the surface being cut up into undulations by valleys. Round towers surmounted by very large windmills are to be seen in many directions, these no doubt are for grinding corn pumping water and the like. Two small villages, the houses of brown colour, and some isolated buildings, dot the landscape. The tops of the hills & ridges, as well as irregular patches of rock here & there suggest a volcanic origin. From the distance the colour of all the land is a straw brown, & appears to be devoid of vegetation, but when closer seen patches of olive green present themselves, these, I was told by two Syrian doctors, are the groves of olive trees which are cultivated on all these islands for the fruit and the oil, they and vines grape vines being the staple product of Greece & the Ionian isles.
These two pages are intended as commencement for a new letter but as the earlier written one is not yet closed I shall insert them. Good bye. Love & kisses
J.BN