Far, Far
Away Along The North-Eastern Shore, And Also Towards The West, All Was
Lovely:
I could only regret that all vessels and strangers must arrive
in the unfortunate ports of the Messaria, instead of gaining such
favourable first impressions as would be induced by the lovely picture
of Cyprus from the north.
While I had been admiring the view, my dogs had been hunting the dense
bushes to very little purpose, and although we scrambled for more than
two hours over the mountain, we only moved ten or twelve red-legged
partridges, which rose upwards of a hundred yards in front of the gun;
it was quite impossible to obtain a shot. With an empty bag, but with a
new impression of the country since my view of the landscape in the
north, I turned homewards, and reached camp late in the afternoon, my
spaniels having no doubt a low opinion of Cyprus sport, and of the
unfair advantages taken by the ever-running red-legged partridges.
On 16th February a painful conviction was established that Cyprus was
unfitted for wheeled carriages and springs. Although the plain appeared
flat and without natural obstacles, the ground had been completely
traversed by deep trenches for the purpose of checking and conducting
surface water to the fields in the event of a heavy shower. Our course
should have been directly across the plain to intersect the road from
Lefkosia to Famagousta, but a glance at the intervening country showed
the impossibility of moving the vans through the miles of green crops
which were nourished by innumerable watercourses, each of which must be
levelled before we could advance.
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