How The Saint And The Gospel Had Been Preserved In The Damp Soil Of That Neighbourhood Must Be Left To The Imagination.

Passing through the ruins of the old town with the line of the wall distinctly visible upon the sea front, we shortly arrived at the spot where the river Pedias should have an exit to the sea.

No sign of a river-bed existed, but a long series of swamps, composed chiefly of bare mud, would during wet weather have made a considerable detour necessary; they were now dry, with the exception of two or three holes full of muddy water, which were unconnected with any perceptible channel. A long stone causeway proved that occasionally the hardened mud upon which we rode would become a lake, but from the numerous tracks of animals the earth was preferred to the uneven and slippery pavement of the artificial road. The enormous quantity of mud brought down by the Pedias during its fitful inundations had completely obliterated all signs of an ordinary river-bed, and the deposit had produced a surface that was scored in numerous places by the rush of water, without in any way suggesting that we were in the neighbourhood of the largest river in Cyprus. The width of this muddy swamp was about two miles, and terminated by a shallow lake upon our left. We were now within a mile and a quarter of Famagousta, and the ground began to rise. It struck me that an eminence upon our right was superior to the height of the city walls, and I rode up to examine the position. There was no doubt that it commanded the lower portion of the fortress, and that a direct shell- fire could be plunged into the rear of the guns which protect the entrance of the harbour. In the event of modifications being introduced when restoring the defensive works of Famagousta, it would be necessary to erect a powerful detached fort upon this position, which would be an immense addition to the defences of the city, as it would enfilade the approaches upon two sides.

The walls of Famagousta are most imposing; they are constructed of carefully-squared stone joined with cement of such extreme hardness that the weather has had no destructive effect. The perimeter of the fortress is about 4000 yards; the shape is nearly a parallelogram. The fosse varies in depth and width, but the minimum of the former is twenty-five feet, and of the width eighty feet, but in some places it exceeds one hundred and forty. This formidable ditch is cut out of the solid rock, which is the usual calcareous sedimentary limestone, and the stone thus obtained has been used in the construction of the walls. The rock foundation would render all mining operations extremely difficult. The fire from the ramparts is increased by cavaliers of great size and strength, capable of mounting numerous heavy guns at a superior altitude. The only entrance from the land side is at the south-west corner; this is exceedingly striking, as the fosse is about 140 feet wide, the scarp and counter-scarp almost perpendicular, being cut from the original rock.

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