HISTORY ETHNOGRAPHY NATURE WINE-MAKING SITE MAP
Selected and rare materials, excerpts and observations from ancient, medieval and contemporary authors, travelers and researchers about Cyprus.
 
 
 
 
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SIR SAMUEL WHITE BAKER
CYPRUS AS I SAW IT IN 1879
page 67

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intervals across the ravines, forming a series of dami or weirs. The soil of Cyprus is peculiar in dissolvine very quickly during a shower, and the water roM down the steep inclines carrying so much earth i l solution, that, should its course be checked, it depositi an important quantity, sufficient in a few seasons t l form a surface for a considerable area. Th e wall! of the dams are continually raised as the earth attain! a higher level, and the ground thus saved is a completi gain to the proprietor. The few partridges were very wild, and saved m l dogs the trouble of hunting by showing themselveB at a couple of hundred yards; the only chance cm shooting them depended upon stray birds passine within shot when disturbed by the long line of gunsJ I only bagged one partridge and a hare, and th e rest of the party had the miserable total of two birds.J This was a fair example of the sport on the bare! hill-sides of Messaria. The new road to Mattiati was unfit for vans ; I there-l fore rode over to visit the camp of the 20th Regiment,] eight miles distant, and after luncheon with the officers of that regiment I accompanied their party to Lithro* dondo, the Colonel having kindly lent me a fresh horse. My aneroid showed an increased elevation of 330 feet in the eight miles from Dali to Mattiati. Afte» leaving the Dali plain the road passes through the usual hills of hard chalk, but about two miles from the entrance an important change was exhibited in the geological structure. Eruptive rocks had burst through the chalk, producing interesting metamorphio phenomena. The hills no longer fatigued the eye by the desolate glare, but the earth was a rich brown diversified with patches of bright chocolate colour.

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