The Heavy Soaked Canvas That Can Hardly Flap In The Strong Wind Is At Length Spread Over The Cold Soft Ground; The Camp-Beds, Though Wet As Tripe, MUST Be Arranged; And Down Go The Iron Legs, Sinking To An Unknown Depth Into The Sodden Soil!

Oh, misery, misery!

Happily unknown to those who stay at home. All this may be avoided in a country where practicable routes exist by travelling with a gipsy-van. Of course you do not personally travel within your van: it simply forms a movable home that accompanies you upon the march, and is always there when required, while you ride independently upon your animal. We live and learn: and I have from experience modified my ideas of a gipsy-van; for a roadless country such as Cyprus practically is--I should have NO SPRINGS. If you are obliged to travel bodily within your vehicle, there can be no doubt that springs relieve the spine, and various indescribable portions of your anatomy; but if your simple "but upon wheels" is to be dragged along, over, and through all kinds of obstacles, there can be no use whatever in springs, which by their elasticity allow your vehicle to sway from side to side, and to seriously threaten the centre of gravity, when in a dangerous place, by oscillation. The cap-waggon of South Africa will go anywhere. The two-wheeled cart of Cyprus is a wonderfully simple affair that may be dragged up or down the side of a mountain by a couple of oxen; the high wheels and light but strong body surmounting all obstacles; these carts do not carry more than twelve or fourteen hundredweight, but in an expedition I should much prefer them to the heavy waggons of South Africa, which, with three thousand pounds, require ten or twelve oxen. The heavier weight in a difficulty of soft ground, or in crossing a river, would be serious, but if the vehicles are numerous, and the weight distributed accordingly, it stands to sense that an enormous advantage is secured by the presence of ten oxen in five light carts, all of which can be applied to drag a single cart out of a serious dilemma, instead of remaining hopelessly fixed in soft mud, anchored by a weight of a ton and a half, as in the case of an African baggage-waggon. High and broad wheels are the first necessity, with a compound axle of wood and iron, the unequal elasticity of which relieves the shock.

I invariably found that during the day I hated my van, and in the evening I blessed it. It certainly delayed us on the march, and as we rode some miles in advance we noted the obstacles that would cause a stoppage, and generally halted to assist when the "tortoise" should arrive. All this was of course annoying in a country where a horse would have cantered cheerily along and have accomplished forty miles a day; but, on the other hand, the van was never intended for grande vitesse; neither is express travelling the proper method of obtaining an accurate knowledge of a new country. Thus we crawled along, making twelve or thirteen miles per diem through a most uninteresting country, the usual scene of treeless waste, but dotted over with extensive villages of mud-built houses, and the inevitable white arched-roof Greek churches.

The only incidents that occurred in this land of apathy were occasioned by our guide, who generally lost his way, and spent some hours in finding the vans at the halting-place in the evening; this was not improving to the temper, and of course I laid the blame upon Cyprus generally, and abused the island almost to the superlative degree adopted by the "newspaper correspondents."

The 17th February was a day of considerable bodily exercise, as we arrived at a series of watercourses as deep and broad as military trenches for sapping up to a fortress. We had no sooner levelled an embankment, and with great difficulty dragged the vans across, than we encountered a new and similar obstruction. At length we arrived within half a mile of the large village Arshia, which, being well irrigated, opposed a perfect network of barriers in the shape of artificial water-channels. The oxen became disheartened, and the pair which drew the blue van driven by our favourite Georgi determined to strike work just as he was applying the sharp driving prick to their posteriors in ascending a steep bank, through which we had cut a passage from the deep water-course beneath. Instead of keeping a straight course, these pig-headed bullocks made a sharp turn to the right up the incline. Down went one upon its knees in rage and despair! while round went the other in an opposite direction: crash went the pole in two pieces! and the blue van, having vainly endeavoured to right itself like a lady about to faint when no one is at hand to save her, tottered for a moment, and turned over with a crash that betokened general destruction. My Abyssinian lad, Amarn, was only just in time to escape, as he had been endeavouring to support the van on the impending side when it suddenly capsised, and he would have been flattened like a black-edged mourning envelope had he not actively sprung out of the way.

All hands set about righting the ship--which was upon her beam-ends, and the wheels uppermost. The first thing necessary was to discharge cargo; this we quickly effected, as there were doors in front and behind, and the numerous packages were soon piled upon the wayside. No sooner was the van empty, than my dogs, who had been watching the operation in bewilderment, jumped in, and no inducement would persuade them to quit the comfortable vehicle, which they supposed had been specially cleared for their convenience; the doors were accordingly shut, and they were locked up. We now passed ropes beneath the van, and secured the ends to the bottom of the wheels, which rested upon the ground; the other ends were thrown over the cap-roof and manned, while the rest of the party endeavoured to raise the van bodily.

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