HISTORIC ISLAND

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 102, 27 October 1931, Page 9

HISTORIC ISLAND

A great part of the island of Cyprus is occupied by two mountain ranges, both of which have a general direction of west to cast. Between the two ranges, one of which holds a peak named by Strabo Mount Olympus, lies ;i. broad plain extending across the island from Famagusta Bay to Morphou, a distance of sixty miles with a breadth of from ten to twenty miles (the island itself is only sixty miles broad at its widest point). Tho plain is known as the Messaria, and is watered by a number of intermittent streams from tho mountains on either hand. The chief streams are the Pedias and the Yalias, and these follow roughly parallel courses eastwards. The greater part of the plain is open and uncultivated, and shows nothing but barren downs, but corn is grown in considerable portions in the north of it, and there is no doubt that the whole area could be cultivated. It is romarkable that while Cyprus was celebrated in antiquity for its forests, which not only covered the mountain ranges but clothed the plain in a dense mass, the island is now barren in many places, the great plain being bare and treeless and woods being found only on the highest slopes of Mount Olympus. The disappearance of the forests has naturally affected the rivers, which arc mostly mere torrents, dry in summer. Even the Pedias docs not reach the sea in summer time, and its waters form unhealthy marshes. In these localities malarial fever occurs, though i); is rarely of a severe type. The disappearance of the forests has only recently been the subject of attention, the British since their occupation of the island beginning an afforestation policy, and progress has been,slow. In agriculture, the fair rainfall (about 13in per annum) makes conditions good, but improvements are un* satisfactory and methods primitive. The average peasant cares nothing for tho rotation of crops or for the cleanliness of his land, while prejudice debars tho use of many new methods. Work has been carried out in the attempt to improve conditions by irrigation and to foster the rearing of livestock. The | once famous copper mines which gave us the name for tho metal (from Cuprium) aro now no longer of value, but salt works persist, and the lakes on which they depend are practically inexhaustible. The lack of natural harbours is a great bar to trade. Cyprus was visited by the Apostle Paul, in A.D. 46, Barnabas being his companion. They went to Salainis and Paphos (famous for its temple to Aphrodite).