The
Newspaper Correspondents Had Just Contributed Ridiculous Reports To
Their Several Employers.
Because the market of Larnaca was well supplied
with woodcocks, red-legged partridges, and hares, at low prices, these
overworked gentlemen of the pen rushed to a conclusion that the island
teemed with game:
Forgetful of the fact that every Cypriote has a gun,
and that numbers were shooting for the consumption of the few. Larnaca
was the common centre towards which all gravitated. As the rate of wages
was only one shilling a day, it may be imagined that sport afforded an
equally remunerative employment, and game was forwarded from all
distances to be hawked about the public thoroughfares. The fact is, that
game is very scarce throughout Cyprus, and the books that have been
written upon this country are certainly not the productions of
sportsmen.
I had read in no mean authority that "the surface of the ground was
covered with heather"--positively there is no such plant in Cyprus as
heath or heather. As we passed the outskirts of Larnaca, we were
introduced to the misery of the plain of Messaria; the so-called heather
is a low thorny bush about twelve inches high, which at a distance has
some resemblance to the plant in question. Brown is the prevailing
colour in this portion of the island, and the aspect was not cheerful as
we slowly marched along the native track or highway towards Arpera,
carefully avoiding the new government macadamised road.
It is a melancholy neighbourhood. A few graves that had been robbed were
open, forming pitfalls for the unwary; other yawning holes had
discovered ancient tombs by the soakage of a recent heavy shower, which
had washed in the roof and exposed the cavity. We passed a small mosque
where there is the tomb of a saint many feet below the level of the
surface, and we shortly came in view of the salt lake about a mile and
three-quarters from the town of Larnaca. We halted about two miles from
the town upon the high ground to admire the aqueduct which crosses the
valley from the village of Cheflik Pacha. This is a very important work.
The masonry is about thirty-six feet above the lowest portion of the
valley, which it spans in thirty-two arches, covering a distance of
about four hundred and twenty yards from height to height. The water
flows in an open canal of cement along the surface, but upon the ground
level it is protected by a covering of stone and lime, until it reaches
the town of Larnaca. A stream of fresh water flows through the valley
beneath the arches of the aqueduct, at a right angle, and is
artificially separated from the salt lake below by means of a dyke of
earth which conducts it direct to the sea. This was rendered necessary
by the floods of the rainy seasons, which carried so large a volume of
fresh water into the lake as to resist the power of evaporation during
the summer months.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 17 of 274
Words from 8462 to 8971
of 143016