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.
The bottom upon which I stood was a mass of debris of bright colours,
varying from pure white to different shades of yellow and red. This
material appeared to have fallen recently, as the blocks did not exhibit
the dull exterior that would have resulted from atmospherical exposure.
I climbed up the steep face of crumbled matter with some difficulty, as
the sharply inclined surface descended with me, emitting a peculiar
metallic clink like masses of broken porcelain. On arrival at the top I
remarked that only a few inches of vegetable mould covered a stratum of
white marl about a foot thick, and this had been pierced in many places
by the heat that had fused the marl and converted it into a clinker or
sharply-edged white slag, mixed with an ochreous yellow and bright red.
I had never met with anything like this singular example of igneous
action upon marls. In the neighbourhood there were considerable masses
of the same clinker-like material exhibiting a honeycombed appearance,
that would have been well adapted for millstones. The natives informed
me that all the millstones of the northern coast were imported from
Athens. I had heard while at Kythrea that the stones for the very
numerous mills of that neighbourhood were supplied from Alexandretta,
and that none of native origin were employed. There can be no doubt that
some of the specimens I examined of this material combined the
requirements of extreme hardness, porosity, and sharpness of interior
edges around the honeycombed cavities. I walked over the mountain, and
quickly lost the marl in masses of plutonic rocks that had been upheaved
and entirely occupied the surface. Although vast blocks lay heaped in
the wildest confusion, they exhibited the peculiar characteristics of
all Cyprian rocks (excepting the calcareous limestone) in their utter
want of compactness. I have never seen in Cyprus any hard rock (except
jurassic limestone), whether gneiss, syenite, or others, that would
yield an unblemished stone to the mason's chisel of ten feet in length
by a square of two feet. This peculiarity is not the result of decay,
but the entire mass has been fractured by volcanic disturbance and by
the rapid cooling of molten matter upheaved from beneath the sea.
Red jasper is abundant in this locality, and is generally found in small
pieces embedded in the marls. I discovered a very compact specimen
weighing about 200 lbs., which I left at a house in Caravastasi until I
might have an opportunity of conveying it to Larnaca. Upon crossing the
mountain I arrived at a charming valley among the hills at an elevation
of about 1200 feet above the sea, at the narrow entrance of which,
between the sides of the gorge, was a Turkish village. I was quickly
observed, and being quite alone, with the exception of my dogs, a
Turkish woman, to whom I made a salaam, ran into a neighbouring house
and sent her husband with a chair, that I might sit beneath an
almond-tree. A few Turks gathered round me and insisted with much
politeness that I should enter the house of the owner of the chair. It
was a rough dwelling, but I was kindly welcomed, and cheese, bread, and
curds were quickly arranged before me, together with a gourd-shell of
clear cold water, from the spring which issued from the rocks in the
gorge about fifty feet below the house. To the disappointment of my host
I was obliged to decline all his offerings, except a draught of cold
water, as I had breakfasted before leaving the camp. The Turk now showed
me his gun, which he explained was of little use, as he could not afford
a game licence, but he offered to show me a spot where hares were
abundant. The shooting-season was long since closed, therefore
partridges and francolins were sacred, but I should have had no scruples
in bagging a hare for a stew.
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