THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
83 
perfect pest. Goats and sheep, are both reared 
here but there are, at present, too few people on 
the Island to eat them, so they live in peace. 
Round the greater part of the Island there is, 
at the top of the gradually sloping band of coral 
fragments I have already mentioned, a second 
ridge which the Lighthouse Keeper’s wife told me 
had been thrown up almost entirely during the 
last, great gale. Below this sloping bank of broken 
coral to about a distance of a quarter of a mile to 
lowtide level, grows a great variety of small 
branched corals, the average size being about as 
big as a large cabbage. There are also many kinds 
of small stone coral, like what I think I have 
heard people call “brain stone” coral. All these 
corals do not grow together into a solid continuous 
mass, but like a forest of trees, here thickly, there 
more sparsely. Many sCange sea-beasts are to be 
seen here, the Beche de Mer looking like a great 
black, slimy, animated sausage. A great, green 
repulsive looking slug, like a gigantic, green, 
frilled snail. Large blue star fishes, giant clams 
with their exquisitely tinted shells, which it is 
said, snap-shut with sufficient force to take your 
foot off; but I dont know if this is so. I did not 
try. Echini armed with their numerous spines 
lie snugly ensconced in cosy nooks. 
But the colours of the coral itself were disap- 
pointing. There were none of the vivid pinks and 
greens in these shallow water corals that one 
hears such wonderful descriptions of. Beyond the 
area of shallow water is a long line of breakers 
showing the outer limit of the reef, and beyond it 
again are the deep blue waters of the Pacific 
Ocean. Well, those are my impressions of the 
Island, it was a delightful experience, and one I 
am glad to have had. I shall go again if f get the 
chance. You could make a level}- collection of 
things if you were there long enough. 
CYPRUS, 
by Lieut.-General Sir R. Biddulph, g.c.m.g., c.b., 
late H. M. High Commissioner, Cyprus. 
( Continued.) 
The total cost of the locust destruction from 
1879 to 188.5, was 66,000/; but as the loss to the 
crops in a single year, had no steps been taken to 
destroy them, would have been not less than 
80,000/., the outlay has been recouped many 
times over. The manner in which locusts destroy 
green vegetation is perfectly appalling. With 
marvellous rapidity, and regardless of any in- 
; terruption, they strip off every green thing, and 
i in a few hours the green fields which they 
attack disappear, leaving a few brown stalks 
issuing from what appears to be a fallow field. 
The Cyprus locust lays its eggs in hard rocky 
ground. Each female deposits a cocoon, which 
contains usually, thirty-two eggs. The female 
bores a hole in the ground to nearly the depth of 
her own body, and there deposits the cocoon, which 
she then covers over with earth. Attempts were 
made at first to destroy the locusts by collecting 
the eggs, but though as much as 1300 tons weight 
were collected in one year, it was found to be a 
useless expense, and that the screen system could 
not be dispensed with. 
The prevalence of locusts in Cyprus is noted in 
an old chronicle of the thirteenth century, but 
it is only since the forests were destroyed that 
they have made head in the manner which has 
been so notable in modern times. It is not likely 
that the great breeding grounds of the locusts 
will ever again be clothed with forest; and we 
must look for the disappearance of the locust 
when the population increases, and with it the 
cultivation. 
The population of Cyprus at the census of 
1881 was 186,000, of whom one-quarter are Ma- 
hometans, and the remainder of the Creek 
Church. It is said that under the Venetians 
the population was 2,000,000, but it is believed 
that it did not exceed half that number. An 
English traveller who visited Cyprus in 1815, 
states that the population then was between 
60,000 and 70,000, and the , produce of the Island 
was then so small that the population must 
have been very scanty. 
The people are almost wholly agricultural, the 
principal products being wheat, barley, cottoiq 
carobs, olives, and grapes. From the latter is 
made an excellent wine, which has been famous 
from the earliest ages. It was the excellence of 
the wine which led to the Ottoman conquest of 
Cyprus by Selim II. That monarch, being very 
found of wine, sent an expedition, in 1570, to 
take the island. The agricultural operations are 
