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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 ι 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. It was therefore necessary to retrace our steps to within a mile and a half of Lefkosia, to the point where the J main route branched to Famagousta. This was a great waste of time, but there was no other way of avoiding the difficulty. Accordingly we started, and ι after a few miles we cut across country to the high • road, while the vans slowly crawled along the uneven way until they reached the turning-point. W e halted ι at a very desolate spot, where sheep were housed in large numbers. Several spacious pens were surrounded with thorns, reminding me of the cattle zareebas of Africa, and a small flat-topped building, built of stone and mud, formed the usual accommodation for man and beast. A well of clear but brackish water supplied this rude establishment, which was surrounded by a boundless extent of undulating ground, more or less cultivated with cereals, which, although only a few inches above the surface, looked weak and perishing. The vans did not arrive until late ; in the mean- I while we had sat outside the building in the cold air, fearing to venture beneath the roof, owing to the swarms of fleas which are sure to be " at home " in all the miserable dwellings of this island. A t G 2

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