The cliffs were not perpendicular, but were broken into steep
declivities from successive landslips: the sides were covered with the
usual prickly plants, but the edges of the stream were thickly bushed
with oleanders which afforded excellent covert for game.
In travelling through Cyprus there is a depressing aspect in the general
decay and ruin of former works. I strolled with my dogs for some miles
along the river banks, and examined the strong masonry remains of many
old water-mills. I found a well-constructed aqueduct of wonderfully hard
cement at the bottom of a cliff close to the present bed of the river:
this must at a former period have passed below the bed, and the
deepening of the stream has exposed and washed away the ancient work.
There was no game beyond a few wild red-legged partridges, although the
appearance of the country had raised my expectations.
On the following morning I rambled with the dogs for many hours over the
range of hills which bounds the plain upon the north, and from which the
river issues. These are completely denuded of soil, and present a
glaring surface of hardened chalk, in the crevices of which the usual
prickly plants can alone exist. Some of the hill-tops exposed a smooth
natural pavement where the rain had washed away all soluble portions and
left the bare foundation cracked in small divisions as though
artificially inlaid.
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