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SIR SAMUEL WHITE BAKER
CYPRUS AS I SAW IT IN 1879
page 246 View PDF version of this page made some fortunate shots, killing one with the rifle at upwards of 200 yards, and disabling the other at about 250. There appeared to be more signs of game in this part of the country, as the cock francolins were crowing in many directions throughout our route, until we arrived at Polis, or, in full, " Poli-ton-Krysokhus. "
This place was formerly important as one of the principal mineral centres of the island, and the large accumulations of scoriae in several mounds near the coast prove that mining operations were conducted upon an extensive scale. A concession had recently been granted to a small private company for the working of copper in this neighbourhood, and should the existence of metallic wealth be proved there can be no doubt that capital will be embarked in mining enterprises, and the locality will recover its former importance. On the other hand, all mining adventures should be conducted with the greatest caution. A common error is committed by sanguine speculators in following the footsteps of the ancients, upon the supposition that because in former ages a locality was productive, it should remain in the same profitable condition. Nothing can be more erroneous ; it is generally poor gleaning after the Phoenicians. The bronze of those extraordinary miners and metallurgists was renowned above all other qualities ; they worked the coppermines of Cyprus and the tin-mines of Cornwall, but the expenses of working a mine in those days bore no comparison with the outlay of modern times. Slaves were employed as a general rule : forced labour was obtainable ; and the general conditions of the labourmarket were utterly at variance with those of the present day. The ancient miners would seldom have abandoned their veins of ore until they were completely
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