Cyprus, as I Saw It in 1879Baker, Samuel White, Sir
History
Cyprus, as I Saw It in 1879
Baker, Samuel White, Sir
Cyprus -- Description and travel
roadsteads for all classes, and could easily be arranged to protect
small trading-vessels; while Baffo would, like Kyrenia and Soli, be
restored to its original position. All rudimentary harbour-works would
be planned with a view to future extension, as might be rendered
necessary by the development of trade.
Colonel White, 1st Royal Scots, who had been appointed chief
commissioner of the Lefkosia district from his former similar position
at Larnaca, arrived at Caravastasi upon the same day as ourselves. This
very painstaking and energetic officer was exploring his district and
investigating all the nooks and corners of the mountainous frontier
which bounded his authority; he was accordingly assailed with complaints
and lamentations concerning the endless water disputes among the
villages; those of the lower ground declaring that the streams to which
they were entitled by the rights of centuries had been diverted to other
channels, that the Turkish authorities had been bribed by the opposing
litigants; with the usual long list of grievances, the discussion of
which I shall defer to a special chapter upon "Irrigation."
CHAPTER VIII.
ROUTE TO BAFFO.
Our tent was pitched upon rising ground, which formed the direct slope
from the sea, a quarter of a mile distant, to the mountain-top about
1500 or 2000 feet above us; the insignificant village of Caravastasi was
upon the sea-beach in our immediate front.
From our commanding position I had observed a peculiar mound with a
cliff-face half a mile to the west, which exhibited the unusual colour
of a bright lemon yellow in close conjunction with red of various
shades. Upon crossing numerous fields of barley, which the reapers had
just attacked (14th April), I descended a ravine at the foot of this
peculiar formation, which I carefully examined.
Since we had crossed the plain of Morphu and quitted the compact
limestone of the Carpas range we had entered upon an interesting
geological change. Eruptive rocks had burst through the marls and
calcareous sedimentary limestone of the coast and had produced very
curious examples of metamorphous rocks, where the marls and limestone
had been in immediate contact with the plutonic. The cliff above me was
about fifty feet high, as I stood at its base within a shallow gorge
that formed a brook during the rainy season.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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