He promised to supply me
with an up-to-date statement, accompanied by a map of the geological
structure of the island. I said to myself: Just what I wanted! Well,
this confounded statement has never reached my hands. Now I fear he has
left the place. Gone away altogether. Didn't have the decency to say
good-bye or leave his address. Too bad. Who knows when the next
mineralogist will turn up? These fellows are not as common as
blackbirds. Meanwhile I have to rely on my own efforts. It's wonderful,
by the way, how much a person can pick up of odds and ends of
information when forced, by a hobby of this kind, to delve into
recondite departments of knowledge which he would otherwise not have
dreamt of exploring. One grows quite encyclopaedic! Minerals, medicine,
strategy, heraldry, navigation, palaeography, statistics, politics,
botany--what did I know or care about all these things before I stumbled
on old Perrelli? Have you ever tried to annotate a classic, Mr. Heard?
I assure you it opens up new vistas, new realms of delight.
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