There Were Plenty Of Snipe In The Marshes Below The Cotton-Fields, For Which Rushes, Low Bushes Of Tamarisk And Other Shrubs, Afforded Excellent Cover.

I quickly bagged two couple and my first Francolin partridge, and was just in time, before dark, to assist the dinner.

At sunrise on the following morning the view was interesting, as the sea glittered brightly to the south, while the bold rocks and wall-like sides of the Carpas mountains stood out in sharply-defined edges and varying colours on the north. To the east we looked over the broadest portion of a dead flat created by the deposit from inundations of the eccentric river Pedias, which, although dry at the present time, periodically floods the country and converts the valley into an extensive lake. It was about twenty miles across this broad flat to the important town of Trichomo, and the ruins of Salamis were discernible with the telescope about midway, close to the seashore.

There was an extent of several miles of marsh around the heights of Kuklia, in some portions of which cotton was cultivated in considerable quantities, but I was surprised at the inferiority of the quality, and at the apparent weakness of the plants where the water-supply was plentiful. On closer examination I observed great carelessness in the absence of drainage; the plants were allowed to perish in stagnant water, which soured the land. Upon a longer acquaintance with M. Mattei's farm, I found the same fault generally.

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