View PDF version of this page

barrenness, where the water-power was expended by absorption. It was impossible to form any idea of the extent d l Kythrea from the outside view. A succession of largì villages with fields highly cultivated covered the surfacJ at the base of the mountains, but the true Kythrea^ was partially concealed by the curious ravine through! which the water of the springs is conducted by aquel ducts until it reaches the lower ground. For a distanced of three miles this ravine is occupied by houses ancl gardens, all of which are supplied by the stream, whicrl turns thirty-two water-mills in its course. The water! wheels in Cyprus are horizontal turbines, and I have only met with one over-shot wheel in the island ; this! is on the estate of M. Mattei at Kuklia. The range of mountains exactly above the village exhibits a peculiar example of the effect of water-wasa for about two hundred feet from the base. From the heights at Government House, twelve miles distant, I had observed through the telescope a curious succession] of conical heaps resembling volcanic mounds of hard-] enéd mud ; these rose one above the other alond the base of the hills like miniature mountain-rangesa Even when near Kythrea I could not understand thd formation, until we found ourselves riding through the steep ravine which holds the watercourse and ascends ing by a narrow path among the countless hills that I have described. Both sides of the gorge, and alsc^ the deep bottom, are occupied by houses with fruitful? gardens, rich in mulberry, orange, lemon, apricots, olives, forming groves of trees that in summer must1 be delightful. Sometimes after clambering up steep and stony paths which had originally been paved we entered into villages, the roofs of the houses below ul

View PDF version of this page