4 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



That there was great abundance in it, we know from 

 Eratofthenes*, who tells us it was fo overgrown that it could 

 not be tilled ; fo that they firft cut down the timber to be 

 ufed in the furnaces for melting filver and copper ; that af- 

 ter this ibey built fleets with it, and when they could not 

 even deflroy it this way, they gave liberty to all Grangers to 

 cut it down for whatever ufe they pleafed; and not only foy 

 but they gave them the property of the ground they cleared.. 



Things are fadly changed now. Wood is one of the wants 

 of moll parts of the ifland, which has not become more 

 healthy by being cleared, as is ordinarily the cafe. 



At f Cacamo (Acamas) on the well fide of the ifland, the 

 wood remains thick and impervious as at the firfl difcovery. 

 Large flags, and wild boars of a monilrous fize, fhelter them- 

 felves unmolefled in thefe their native woods ; and it de- 

 pended only upon the portion of credulity that I was en- 

 dowed with, that I did not believe that an elephant had, not 

 many years ago, been feen alive there. Several families of 

 Greeks declared it to me upon oath ; nor were there wanting- 

 perfons of that nation at Alexandria, who laboured to con- 

 firm the afTertion. Had fkeletons of that animal been there, 

 I mould have thought them antediluvian ones. I know 

 none could have been at Cyprus, unlefs in the time of Dari- 

 us Ochus, and I do not remember that there were elephants, 

 even with him. 



In 



Strabo, lib. xiv. p. 684. f Strabo, lib. xir. p. 780. 



