View PDF version of this page

to drag a single cart out of a serious dilemma, instead of remaining hopelessly fixed in soft mud, anchored by a weight of a ton and a half, as in the case of an African baggage-\vaggon. High and broad wheels are rthe first necessity, with a compound axle of wood and •iron, the unequal elasticity of which relieves the shock. I invariably found that during the day I hated my van, and in the evening I blessed it. It certainly delayed us on the march, and as we rode some miles in •advance we noted the obstacles that would cause a stoppage, and generally halted to assist when the I tortoise " should arrive. All this was of course annoying in a country where a horse would have cantered cheerily along and have accomplished forty miles a day ; but, on the other hand, the van was never intended for grande vitesse; neither is express travelling the proper method of obtaining an accurate knowledge of a new country. Thus we crawled along, making twelve or thirteen miles per diem through a most uninteresting country, the usual scene of treeless waste, but dotted over with extensive villages of mud-built houses, and the inevitable white archedroof Greek churches. The only incidents that occurred in this land of apathy were occasioned by our guide, who generally lost his way, and spent some hours in finding the vans at the halting-place in the evening ; this was not improving to the temper, and of course I laid the blame upon Cyprus generally, and abused the island almost to the superlative degree adopted by the " newspaper correspondents. " The 17th February was a day of considerable bodily exercise, as we arrived at a series of watercourses as deep and broad as military trenches for sapping up to

View PDF version of this page