Our Guide Scorned A Beaten Track, And After Having
Kept The Regular Path Along The Sea-Coast For A Mile, He Struck
Directly Up The Mountain, Which Descended In A Steep Cliff To The Shore,
Against Which The Waves Dashed With Violence.
The country was
exceedingly wild for some miles as we ascended through bush of young
pines, dwarf-cypress, and mastic, occasionally passing pines of larger
growth, which had, as usual, been mutilated.
We moved partridges in
several places, but these were old birds packed in considerable numbers:
a bad sign at this season, when they should have been sitting upon eggs.
At an elevation of about 1000 feet above the sea we came upon a park of
caroub-trees, in which was a spring of water; large flocks of goats and
cattle, together with many mules and horses, were roaming through this
verdant district, which afforded abundant pasturage in the shape of wild
artichokes, a variety of succulent thistles, and many plants suitable to
the native animals in the absence of actual grasses. This is a
distressing want throughout Cyprus; when the country is green, the
verdure is produced by cultivated crops of cereals, which quickly change
to yellow as they ripen; all the natural productions of the earth are
what in England we should term "weeds "--there is no real grass, except
in some rare localities where a species of "couch-grass" (the British
farmer's enemy) crawls along the surface, being nourished by its knotty
roots, which, penetrating into the deep soil, are enabled to escape the
burning sun.
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