Throughout The Barren Plain Of Messaria Water Exists In Unfailing Quantity Within A Few Yards Of The Parched Surface--Thus At The Same Time That The Crops Are Perishing From The Want Of Rain, The Roots Are Actually Within A Few Feet Of The Desired Supply.

The cattle-wheels of Cyprus are very inferior to the sakyeeah of Egypt, but are arranged upon a similar

Principle, by a chain of earthenware pots or jars upon a rope and wheel, which, revolving above a deep cistern, ascend from the depth below, and deliver the water into a trough or reservoir upon the surface. From the general reservoir small watercourses conduct the stream to any spot desired. This is the most ancient system of artificial irrigation by machinery, and it is better adapted for the requirements of this country than any expensive European inventions. As I shall devote a chapter specially to the all-important question of irrigation, I shall postpone further remarks upon the cattle-wheel; but the farm in question which formed a solitary green oasis in the vast expanse of withered surface was a sufficient example of the necessity, and of the fruitful result of this simple and inexpensive method. It is a mere question of outlay, and the government must assist the cultivators by loans for the special erection of water-wheels. But of this more hereafter.

At about six miles from Dali we struck the road between Larnaca and Lefkosia (or Nicosia). The newly-established mail-coach with four horses passed us, with only one passenger. We met it again on the following day, with a solitary unit; and it appeared that the four horses on many occasions had no other weight behind them than the driver and the letters. With this instance of inertia before their eyes, certain lunatics (or WISE CONTRACTORS) suggested the necessity of a railway for twenty-eight miles to connect the two capitals! The mail had an ephemeral existence, and after running fruitlessly to and fro for a few months, it withdrew altogether, leaving an abundant space in Cyprus for my two vans, without the slightest chance of a collision upon the new highway, as there were no other carriages on the roads, excepting the few native two-wheeled carts.

We halted five miles from Lefkosia, where a new stone bridge was in process of construction and was nearly completed. We had already passed a long and extremely narrow Turkish bridge across the river about four miles in our rear. By pacing I made the new bridge twenty-nine feet, the same width as the road, and I could not help thinking that a much less expensive commencement would have been sufficient to meet the requirements of the country. In Cyprus the rainfall is generally slight and the earth is tenacious, and in dry weather exceedingly hard; if half the width of the road had been carefully metalled in the first instance, a great expense would have been saved at a time when the island was sadly in want of money; the natural surface of the firm soil would have been preferred by all vehicles except during rain, when they would have adopted the metalled parallel way.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 37 of 274
Words from 18897 to 19431 of 143016