We Now Ascended An Exceedingly Steep Hill From The River's
Bed, Which Severely Tried Our Animals, Until, After Passing A Succession
Of Cereal Crops And Vineyards, We Arrived At The Summit, About 1200 Feet
Above The Valley.
From this point the view was magnificent.
The
pine-covered sides of Troodos appeared close before us, and a valley
stretched away to our right richly clothed with trees below the steep
vine-covered sides of the surrounding mountains. Keeping to our left and
passing through several insignificant villages, we commenced a most
dangerous descent, with an occasional deep precipice on the right of the
extremely narrow path, until we reached a contracted but verdant glen.
This was a remarkable change: we had suddenly entered one of those
picturesque vales for which Devonshire is famous. The vegetation had
changed to that of Europe, as we were now nearly 3000 feet above the
sea. Apple and pear trees of large size were present, not in orchards,
but growing independently as though wild. Dog-roses of exquisite colour
were in full bloom, and reminded us of English hedges. Beautiful
oak-trees scattered upon the green surface gave a park-like appearance
to the scene, and numerous streams of clear water rippled though the
myrtle-covered banks, over the deep brown rocks of the plutonic
formation, which had now succeeded to the cretaceous limestone.
It was a curious geological division, limited by the glen: on the left,
the hills and mountains were the usual white marls and cretaceous
limestone; while on the right everything was plutonic or granitic,
including gneiss, syenite, and metamorphous rocks of various characters.
The soil of the glen was red, and the villages, built of sun-baked
bricks of this colour, harmonised with the dark green of rich crops of
wheat that had been irrigated by the never-failing water-power.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 337 of 524
Words from 91725 to 92033
of 143016