The Glen Now Widened To A Valley About
A Mile And Three-Quarters In Diameter, Surrounded Upon All Sides By
Heights, And We Commenced One Of The Steepest Ascents In Cyprus, Up The
Face Of The Slope About 1000 Feet Above The Bottom.
The zigzags were
upon a surface of white marl, which during wet weather would become as
slippery as soap, and be impassable for loaded animals.
Many times our
mules were forced to halt and rest, but they were good and sure-footed
beasts, that could always be depended upon.
At length we gained the summit, which was a total change of scene.
Instead of descending upon the other side, as I had expected, we had
arrived at a plateau eight or nine miles in length from north to south,
and an invisible distance from east to west. The soil was a rich reddish
chocolate, forming a grateful contrast to the glaring white marls that
we had just quitted, and which composed the steep hills that surrounded
the lower basin. A growth of young pines and other evergreen shrubs
ornamented the surface, and at about a quarter of a mile from the summit
of the pass by which we had arrived we halted at a well of pure water
among a small grove of olive-trees. Although we were at least 1000 feet
above the valley, the water was only ten feet from the coping-stone by
measurement. There could be little doubt that the perennial stream in
the deep glen was the result of the drainage of this extensive
table-land, corresponding with similar heights upon the other side.
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