ON THE PRODUCTIVE RESOURCES OP CYPRUS. 165 



century of the fearful depredations of this insect. It has been imagined 

 that it has been at different times borne by the winds from Caramania 

 or Syria, and thus carried across the sea to Cyprus ; it has been again 

 thought that it may have been introduced by ships bringing cargoes of 

 grain. It seems, however, to be indigenous ; and so wonderfully pro- 

 lific is it, that unless active measures are taken to extirpate it, it increases 

 in a lew years so rapidly and in such quantities, as to swarm in myriads 

 upon the face of the country, to which they are confined and shut in by 

 the sea. When the wind, however, is strong from the land at the time 

 they approach the coast in their flight, they are carried out to sea and 

 perish in vast quantities. In the month of April the country is alive with 

 locusts ; they eat up every green thiag, and leave literally a desert Jbehind 

 them. In August they deposit their eggs, and shortly after die. The spots 

 where the eggs are deposited are easily discovered by a shiny viscous 

 matter, with which they cover and soiten the earth when about to 

 deposit them. The male is said to be much more numerous than the 

 female. The female lays two or even three eggs, each of which 

 produces on an average at least thirty locusts ; the egg being, in fact, an 

 agglomeration of small eggs, in one oblong mass about the size of a pine 

 seed, in which the eggs are disposed close together like seed in a pod. 

 With care and perseverance, Cyprus might be freed of this plague. By 

 a systematic and continual destruction of the insect and its eggs, it would 

 almost disappear in the course of three or four years. The attempt was 

 made by Osman Pasha, in 1855-56, and proved very successful ; but it 

 was subsequently neglected, and the consequence was that, although 

 Cyprus enjoyed a few years of freedom from this pest, yet they gradually 

 increased in number till in 1861 the spring -crops suffered fearfully from 

 their ravages. During the past year, Zia Pasha, who for a few months 

 was Governor of Cyprus, took the matter up actively, and through his 

 representations the Government was induced to grant a sum of 2,500 

 Turkish lire (equivalent to about 2,270Z.) for carrying out various means 

 proposed for their destruction. At the same time, a tax of 20 okes ol 

 locusts' eggs per head has been imposed upon the inhabitants. It is 

 calculated that from this tax at least a million of okes will be derived ; 

 the oke having been found to contain on an average 1,800 eggs, from 

 each of which 30 locusts are produced. The number of locusts (fifty 

 thousand millions) which might thus be destroyed in the egg is almost 

 incredible. 



