of the Island ofCerigo and its Dependencies, 275 



present Lord High Commissioner. Indeed, ever since Sir How- 

 ard Douglas's arrival in these islands improvements have been 

 projected, and are successfully being carried into effect in every 

 department. We trust that the people over whom he so pater- 

 nally presides will appreciate the important services he is render- 

 ing to them. There are several great bars to the improvement 

 of agriculture in Cerigo, but one of the greatest is, that many of 

 the labourers leave their own island in spring to work elsewhere, 

 for in the Morea, Candia, and Asia Minor, they make more 

 money than if they remained at home to cultivate their grounds. 

 The consequence is, that the agricultural labours are performed 

 in their absence by the old men, women, and children. Ano- 

 ther, and on what seems to hinge all others, is the want of a 

 port to carry on commerce with other people, so as to export the 

 produce of the island not consumed by the inhabitants them- 

 selves. 



Having premised these remarks, we may now state, that, on 

 account of the diversity of formations in Cerigo, we meet with 

 various kinds of soil. In the district of Potamo the soil is for 

 the most part too siliceous to be fertile ; indeed, it is often ex- 

 tremely sterile, except in the valleys, and more especially ^those 

 which are watered, where there is a mixture of other substances 

 rendering it fit for cultivation ; but in the valleys at the south 

 end of this district, where the clay- slate and limestone appear, 

 vegetation is extremely luxuriant. Again, in the limestone 

 ranges, the soil is scanty and unproductive, owing, as in Pota- 

 mo, to a want of a due mixture of other substances. In some 

 valleys, or parts of valleys, the soil is entirely marly or clayey, 

 in others calcareous, on both of which vegetation may be almost 

 said to cease in hot weather ; in others gravelly ; while in the 

 finest of all there is a mixture of marly clay and sand, owing to 

 a breaking up and mixing of the tertiary deposits, forming the 

 richest soil in the island, as at I^ivadi and Milopotamo. It is 

 not long since the natives began to use manure generally ; and 

 even now some soils are never manured or fallowed. These are 

 in the valleys which the natives believe to be sufficiently strength- 

 ened after bearing by the substances brought off the mountains 

 during the rains. 



