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 225

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lower basin. A growth of young pines and other] evergreen shrubs ornamented the surface, and at I about a quarter of a mile from the summit of the pass J by which Ave had arrived we halted at a well of pure! water among a small grove of olive-trees. Although! we were at least 1000 feet above the valley, the water I was only ten feet from the coping-stone by measure-1 ment. There could be little doubt that the perennial-] stream in the deep glen was the result of the drainage ) of this extensive table-land, corresponding with similar* heights upon the other side. Having breakfasted by the well of deliciously cold water, we remounted, and continued our route alongij the extensive table-land. This was cultivated in manya places, but as w e advanced for two or three miles the! country became exceedingly wild, and we entered a wood of Pinus maritima, composed of young trees oil several years' growth, and older stems that had been! mutilated in the disgraceful manner that characterises^ all Cyprian forests. There was not one perfect tree " above eight years' growth ; but every stem had beenjj cut off about six feet* from the top for the sake of the 1 straight pole. Trees of fifteen years or more had I been mercilessly hacked for the small amount of turi pentine that such trunks would produce, and the bark; had been ripped off for tanning. Great quantities of mastic bushes covered the surface between the pines, and even these exhibited the continual attacks Of the woodcutter's grubbing-axe, which had torn up the roots, in addition to the stems, for the requirements of the lime-burner. The red soil is so propitious to the growth of pines that, in .spite of the unremitting destruction, the ground was covered with young plants, self-sown from the fallen cones. If these young forests were

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