158 

 THE PRODUCTIVE RESOURCES OF CYPRUS. 



BY MR. WHITE, BRITISH VICE CONSUL. 



Cyprus was in olden times, perhaps, more famous for its mineral 

 than for any other of its productions. The copper mines were especially 

 rich, and the quality of the copper which they yielded, the "ass 

 cyprium," was considered superior to any other. Mines of the more 

 precious minerals, gold and silver, were said to exist, and even to have 

 been worked in antiquity, although at the present time their existence 

 is unknown, and no mines of any description are worked. The mineral 

 wealth of the Island is, however, a subject well worthy the attention of 

 the Government, and it is to be lamented that no inquiry should have 

 been made as to their state. The copper mines, formerly so celebrated, 

 can hardly be supposed to have been exhausted. Asbestos, or amian- 

 thus, of a superior quality is found in the country between Limassol 

 and Baffon : it is white and silky, and the fibre is very delicate. 

 Copperas, or blue vitriol, was an article of exportation, during the 

 seventeenth century. Talc is very common in the Island, especially 

 about Larnaca ; a kind of rock-crystal, called the Cyprus diamond, is 

 found near Baffon ; umber is also obtained in great quantities, and is 

 exported to England, America, and Leghorn. 



If the mineral wealth of Cyprus is at present neglected, such is not 

 the case with its salt lakes, from which much and increasing profit is 

 derived. There are two lagunes from which the salt is obtained in 

 Cyprus — one near Limassol, and the other near Larnaca. The salt 

 yielded by the former is the whitest, but that of the latter the most 

 pungent. Salt was an important source of revenue in the times of the 

 Lusignan princes. The Venetians still later are said to have charged 

 annually 70 large vessels with salt. The Turkish Government, till 

 within the present year, has been accustomed to farm out the 

 salt lakes for sums varying from 200,000 piastres to 300,000 piastres 

 per annum — that is, from 1,800/. to 2,700Z. ; but this system has now 

 been abandoned, and it has been found that the quantity of salt yielded 

 this year is 20,000 arabas of 1,000 okes, or 1^ tons each : allowing 20 

 per cent, for loss, this represents 20,000 tons of salt, which, at 500 

 piastres the araba, the price at which it is sold by Government, gives 

 8,000,000 piastres, or 72,700/. ; this quantity, however, cannot always 

 be sold in one year. The salt is heaped up in large mounds by the 

 side of the lakes, and the produce of the former year must be sold before 

 that of the new year can be touched. 



The pine is almost the only tree useful for construction that grows 

 in any quantity in Cyprus. Extensive pine-forests exist in the higher 

 mountains, especially in Troodos ; some of the trees are of considerable 

 size, but there are no roads by which large timber can be transported 

 to the shore. The woods are wantonly thinned by the peasants, who 



