HISTORY ETHNOGRAPHY NATURE WINE-MAKING SITE MAP
Selected and rare materials, excerpts and observations from ancient, medieval and contemporary authors, travelers and researchers about Cyprus.
 
 
 
 
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SIR SAMUEL WHITE BAKER
CYPRUS AS I SAW IT IN 1879
page 353

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purpose, a large pine is felled, and the tapered, pointed! top is cut off to a convenient length, the great spari being rejected and left to decay upon the ground.have never seen pit-saws used, but as a rule, should aft beam or stout plank be required, a whole tree is adzed away to produce it, and great piles of chips are continually met with in the forests, where some large trunk has thus perished under the exhausting process. I was rather surprised, when the military huts were conveyed at an immense expense of transport to the mountain station, that a few pairs of English sawyers had not, been employed to cut the inexhaustible supply eft seasoned wood now lying uselessly upon the ground, that would have supplied all necessary planks and rafters, &c. Fires, either accidental or malicious, are not uncommon, and I have seen hill-sides completely destroyed. At a certain season the pines change their foliage and the ground becomes thickly covered to the depth of a couple of inches or more with the dry and highly inflammable spines. Should these take fire, the conflagration in a high wind becomes serious, and spreads to the trees, which perish. Nothing would be easier than to defend the interests of the woods and forests by an efficient staff foresters, who should be Highlanders from Scodar accustomed to mountain climbing, or English game-i keepers, who would combine the protection of forest with that of game. These men, under the command of a certain number of officers, should be quartered ir particular districts, and would quickly acquire a know-! ledge of the localities. The higher mountains wouldji be their home during the summer months, from which)' points the sound of an axe could be heard from a

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