It is a wonder how, seeing the rude manner in which the wine is made, that it is so good as it is. Very little trouble is taken with it. Goats and young donkeys wander at their own wicked will through the vineyards during the early part of the year, and feed upon the young grapes. The clusters are gathered without the slightest selection, and thrown upon the ground, where probably they may remain until soaked with rain. After lying for a week to rot, they are pressed in the roughest way; the must is poured into large earthen vessels, which are frequently put into a room where rancid oil, grain, dried leaves, fruit, and all sorts of bad smelling things are standing and hanging around. In this polluted atmosphere the must has to undergo two fermentations. Over the earthen pot that contains the wine a flat slate is laid, or a cover with a little hole in it, through which at intervals a straw is introduced and a mouthful sucked out, partly as a drink, but perhaps more properly to ascertain how the wine is getting on; it may have grown sour or it may not. Should the fermentation have proved successful, the merchants come, ready to bargain about the price. This wine is kept in casks, through which the air is allowed to pass, and after a year is considered to be in good condition. As in many neighbouring countries, it is the custom in Cyprus to buy wine when a child is born and keep it to be drunk at its marriage feast. Commanderia is first the colour of a topaz, and then becomes deep red, finally attaining the hue of good curaçoa. Muscadine, the second quality of Cyprian wine, is very sweet and has a slight violet tinge when new, after some years it attains the thickness of syrup. Mavro, a dark red wine, is also much drunk in Cyprus; it is very dry and resembles Chateau Margaux. CHAPTER XXIV. SOIL AND MINERAL PRODUCTS. A glance at the map shows us that the island of Cyprus is naturally divisible into three regions, all widely differing from each other. Along the entire length of its northern division there runs a long range of low hills, close to the sea, varying in height from two to three thousand feet, composed of Jura limestone, flanked on either side by Vienna sandstone. The western and southern portions, constituting at least half of the island, are covered with mountains from two thousand to six thousand feet high. These lofty ridges and projecting peaks, as well as the whole northern half of the district, consist of greenstone, while towards the south they are principally composed of marl and tertiary limestone.