Considerable supplies of water for irrigation purposes are obtained by sinking wells. A long chain of wells are sunk at distances of five or six yards apart, and being connected by underground galleries, a channel is thus formed which conveys the water to a reservoir constructed at the foot of the last well, and it is thence raised to the surface by a waterwheel; or in some cases the level of the ground admits of the channel being brought out on the surface. In this way the town of Nicosia is supplied with excellent water, which is brought in two aqueducts from a distance of some miles. Larnaca and Famagusta and other towns have similar aqueducts.

Closely connected with the water supply is the forest question.

Cyprus was anciently clothed with forests. In Old Testament times much shipbuilding took place. In Balaam's prophecy we read that ships shall come from the coast of Chittim, and it was with Cyprus timber that Alexander the Great built the fleets which he launched on the Tigris and Euphrates. At the present time the forests are confined to the mountain ranges, and threaten to disappear altogether.

At the time of the Egyptian occupation of Cyprus, vast quantities of timber were cut down and carried to Egypt. In this way the whole country round Larnaca was completely denuded of trees. Previous to that time, the low hills to the west of Larnaca were covered with forest. Now but a few dwarfed and scattered specimens remain. It is not till we approach the mountain of Troodos that we find anything like a real forest. Here, on the spot where the summer encampment of the troops is fixed, there are some magnificent specimens of the Pinus Laricio, which clothe the mountains from an altitude of 4500 feet upwards. The Aleppo pine furnishes, however, nine-tenths of the forests. It attains very fine dimensions in Cyprus, and flourishes on all sorts of mineral soils to an altitude of 4500 to 5000 feet. Trees of 10 feet in circumference are frequently met with. The forests continue westward from Troodos, though much encroached upon, and cruelly misused by reckless felling, and tapping for resin, until we pass the monastery of Kikko. Between this point and the sea, to the extremity of the watershed, there are real forests, and those of a very considerable extent, covering an area of over 200 square miles. These owe their immunity partly to their large extent; but more especially because the spurs and valleys leading to them are of so difficult a nature that the transport of timber is not easily effected. It is here that the few remaining cedars of Cyprus are to be found; occupying a space of seven or eight square miles, at a mean altitude of 4500 feet. They resemble the Atlas cedar; none of the trees exceed 80 years of age, an insignificant age for a species that reaches 2000 years.

The crest of the northern range is also fringed with trees, and there are other patches of forest land containing brushwood and a few trees. On the whole, the forest lands of Cyprus occupy an area of 400 square

The destruction of the forests dates, however, from modern times. For many centuries a vigorous felling went on, which gave to the wood of Cyprus an unique reputation in the Eastern world. I have already alluded to the fleets built by Alexander the Great from Cyprus timber; the Venetians also took immense quantities for their commerce and marine. But this would only affect the old and fine trees, because young trees are of no use for shipbuilding; hence the forests would always be renewed from the young trees. Great damage must, however, have been done by the mines which were so extensively worked by the Phnicians and the Romans, as trees of all sorts and sizes would be used for fuel. With the cessation of the mining, the forests must have again recovered themselves; and the true causes of the modern destruction of the forests are stated to be three in number, viz. fitful cultivation, fire, and the grazing of goats.

It is beyond the province of this paper to enter into detail on these points. They have been most ably dealt with by a French gentleman who was for three years the principal forest officer of Cyprus. But it may be interesting just to draw attention to the manner in which Cyprus is overrun by goats, which are the greatest enemies to forests in every country where they exist.

Taking five Mediterranean countries where goats abound, we find that there are: In Italy 14 goats per square mile, 63 per 1000 inhabitants. In Sicily 16 goats per square mile, 74 per 1000 inhabitants. In Portugal 27 goats per square mile, 210 per 1000 inhabitants. In Sardinia 25 goats per square mile, 374 per 1000 inhabitants. In Cyprus 64 goats per square mile, 1430 per 1000 inhabitants. Cyprus, in fact, contains more goats in proportion to its area and population than any country in the world.

The manner in which the destruction of forests is accomplished by goats, is described by Darwin and others with regard to the island of St. Helena. The goats were introduced into the island in 1502, and increased there in a short time beyond all measure. But as they only destroyed the young trees and respected the old, their ravages were not at first perceived. In 1710 the forests were still very thick; but in 1724 the old trees having arrived at the term of their existence, and having nearly all fallen, and those that ought to have replaced them not having sprung up, the forests disappeared almost suddenly, and were replaced by thick grass. The climatic disturbance thus caused to the island was very great and mischievous. In 1731 all stray animals were destroyed; but too late, as is always the case. Darwin, writing in

The French forest officer whom I have mentioned, M. Madon, made a very careful examination of the best-preserved parts of the forests, and showed the following results:

(1) For every hundred trees which were standing, there were 72 that had been felled and were left lying on the ground to rot.

(2) For the same number of standing trees (100) there were only 25 seedlings.

The first shows the result of wasteful and reckless woodcutting. The second is the result of the indiscriminate pasturage of goats.

I have dwelt a little on this forest question because it has very sensibly affected the wealth and productiveness of the island. As the forests disappeared, so did the soil that covered the hills. That soil was washed down to the plains, choked the river-beds and formed malarious swamps, the hills became bare rocks incapable of growing a blade of grass, and the locust at once took possession of the barren ground, whilst the absence of trees deprived the earth of its annually fertilising agent, leaf-mould. There is now a stony desert at the south-east of the island between Famagusta and Larnaca, where tradition says there was formerly a large forest, and to the east of the Mesaorea, on the now dry and desolate plateau, there are many lime-kilns now in ruins, which could not have been supplied except by a vegetation that has now altogether disappeared.

I have alluded to the appearance of the locust as being connected with the disappearance of the forests, and so much has been said about the locusts of Cyprus that I must not wholly pass them by without mention. The Cyprus locust is a small species, indigenous to the island, and is not the great migratory locust which is so well known. The young locusts make their appearance early in March, like very small flies in appearance, but they grow rapidly, and in a few days begin to hop along in masses. They do not begin to fly for about six weeks, and it is during the crawling stage that their destruction is effected. After they begin to fly nothing further can be done.

The inventor of the system used for destroying them is Mr. Mattei, a gentleman of Italian extraction, whose family have been long settled in Cyprus. He had observed their habit of moving straight in masses, so that on arriving at any deep ditch or well, they fell in and were unable to extricate themselves. On one occasion he was watching a large swarm which approached the city of Nicosia; on reaching the walls they climbed up them, and where the top of the wall was broken they entered the town, but in some places there was a smooth band of plaster on the top of the wall. He observed that they could not walk on this smooth surface, but fell back into the ditch. At once the idea flashed into his mind of making an artificial wall with a slippery top to it to

The system has been maintained by us in principle, but has been improved in detail. The wooden frames have been abandoned, and strips of zinc are used instead, which are laid on the ground, overlapping the edges of the pits. By this means they can be adapted to pits of any size, and a great saving is effected in the cost of transport, for when a swarm of locusts has been destroyed the screens and traps are taken up, packed on mules and donkeys, and carried off somewhere else. In places where the locusts are thick, or where they tend to accumulate, such as the mouth of a small ravine, very large pits are dug, covering a surface of 80 to 100 square feet. The locusts come pouring into these like a waterfall, and making the same rushing kind of noise.

When once the locusts begin to fly the traps are useless. The period for the locust campaign only lasts, therefore, for about six weeks, and everything depends on an active prosecution of the campaign during that period. If large swarms escape the whole work has to be gone over again the next year.

It was this consideration that led me to see that it was necessary to centralise the management of the locust campaign under one head. When each commissioner managed it in his own district, swarms constantly escaped from one district to another, and it was impossible to allot beforehand the screens and traps according to the wants of each district. Much time was lost in sending material from one district to another. I therefore placed the whole under the Government engineer,

The greatest number which, it was calculated, were destroyed in one year was 195,000 millions in 1883, and the following year 56,000 millions. The estimated number of eggs laid by those that escaped in 1883 was 169,432 millions, and in 1887 it was 1216 millions, of which probably one-half would not come to maturity. The extraordinary fecundity of the locust is such that one pair of locusts left uninterruptedly to breed, would in ten years reach 2000 millions, even if one-half of the eggs failed to hatch out or were otherwise destroyed.

The total cost of the locust destruction from 1879 to 1885 was 66,000l.; but as the loss to the crops in a single year, had no steps been taken to destroy them, would have been not less than 80,000l., the outlay has been recouped many times over. The manner in which locusts destroy green vegetation is perfectly appalling. With marvellous rapidity, and regardless of any interruption, they strip off every green thing, and in a few hours the green fields which they attack disappear, leaving a few brown stalks issuing from what appears to be a fallow field.

The Cyprus locust lays its eggs in hard rocky ground. Each female deposits a cocoon, which contains usually thirty-two eggs. The female bores a hole in the ground to nearly the depth of her own body, and there deposits the cocoon, which she then covers over with earth. Attempts were made at first to destroy the locusts by collecting the eggs, but though as much as 1300 tons weight were collected in one year, it was found to be a useless expense, and that the screen system could not be dispensed with.

The prevalence of locusts in Cyprus is noted in an old chronicle of the thirteenth century, but it is only since the forests were destroyed that they have made head in the manner which has been so notable in modern times. It is not likely that the great breeding grounds of the locust will ever again be clothed with forest; and we must look for the disappearance of the locust when the population increases, and with it the cultivation.