A Lake Exists About Three Miles Inland From Famagousta, Which Is Between Four And Five Miles In Circumference; The Water Is Fresh, But Exceedingly Shallow And Impure, The Edges Covered With High Reeds, Which Extend For Several Hundred Yards From The Shore.

This lake swarms with varieties of water-fowl, which can only be shot by wading and waiting concealed in the high cover of rushes and tamarisk, as they are exceedingly wary.

Commander Hammond, of H.M.S. Torch, bagged thirty-five ducks to his own gun upon one occasion, by thus challenging the fever and remaining hip-deep in the muddy water for some hours. I did not feel disposed to risk the chances of malaria, as the effluvium from the mud was sufficiently offensive even when walking round the margin, and I already felt some warning symptoms of the heavy atmosphere of Famagousta, which might, if neglected, have terminated in ague. I shot a fine specimen of the glossy ibis, and I otherwise contented myself with watching the variety of ducks, coots, teal, and other water-fowl through my glass, as they enjoyed themselves in flocks upon the surface of the lake at a great distance.

Having exhausted the sights of Famagousta, we started on the 22nd of March for Kuklia, twelve miles distant, where we had left our vans in charge of the headman during our absence in the Carpas country. Upon our arrival we found them untouched or unharmed, and we were met not only by the headman himself, but by our two bullock-drivers Georgi and Theodori, who had come from Lithrankomi. Georgi had recovered from the despair which had overpowered him when we last parted, and he was almost triumphant when he related the success of his mission to Gallibornu with the mysterious paper written in English, that I had given him in order to terrify the purchaser of his bullock. He had exhibited this awe-inspiring epistle, which nobody could either read or understand, and Georgi had taken advantage of his opportunity to threaten the sharp cattle-dealer with a long list of imaginary punishments that would be inflicted by English law should he refuse to return the bullock, which had been hired for a special service by an Englishman. The paper was closely scrutinised, and being in an unknown character, Georgi felt his advantage, and expounded the contents so forcibly that he worked upon the fears of the inhabitants of Gallibornu, who insisted that the Turk should compromise the affair and return the handsome bullock, receiving in exchange his own half-starved old animal, in addition to a present of half a sovereign. Georgi was only too delighted to immediately clench the bargain. I advised him in future to manage his own cattle-dealing instead of confiding in his able friend Theodori, and I ordered the oxen to be put in the yokes at once, and to draw the vans to our old camping-place beneath the hawthorn-tree. Upon arrival at the spot a great change had taken place; the hawthorns were a mass of blossom, and scented the air for a considerable distance; the groves of fig-trees had broken into leaf; the trefoil had grown to a height of two feet, and numerous cattle were tethered in the rich field, to feed upon the few square yards that each owner had purchased at a high price to save his animals from starvation.

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