MOUFFLON-STALKING IN CYPHUS 339 



the 7th of October by the Harwich, Hotterdam, and 

 Munich route to Trieste, only reaching the latter an 

 hour before the departure of our steamer, the Achille. 

 As, however, my telegraphic instructions had been 

 duly carried out, our baggage was already on board, 

 and we got away without any trouble. 



Smooth seas and sunny skies made up this time 

 for the abominable weather I had experienced in 

 these w^aters during the previous year, and we 

 reached the Piraeus at daylight on the 14th, spent 

 the day in Athens, which was new to my wife, 

 and sailed again at sunset on another steamer, the 

 Galatea. After the first night we were in waters 

 new to me, but all we saw were a few of the count- 

 less islets of the archipelago — all more or less barren- 

 looking. During the second night we passed between 

 the island of Rhodes and the Asiatic mainland, 

 and on Sunday morning saw the Cilician coast low 

 on the horizon. Next day we reached Limassol by 

 daybreak, landed, and put up at a very indifferent 

 hotel, whose only recommendation lay in the clean- 

 ness of its beds. Indeed this was considered a 

 feature of the house, as may be seen by the pro- 

 prietor's card — '^A Grand and New Hotel Troodos 

 of Nic. Kypriotis, with new and clean matresses (sic) 

 and excellent cookery." 



Limassol can have altered but little during the 

 twenty-one years of the British occupation, and differs 

 only from an ordinary Turkish town by the absence 

 of smells. We had to spend forty-eight hours here 

 perforce, my permit to land arms not having arrived. 

 A good deal of this time was spent in laying in 

 stores, in which operation we w^ere not a little 

 bothered by the currency. The gold and silver, of 



