46 . CYPRUS. 
CHAP, perfectly white ; finer, and more delicately- 
fibrous, than that of Sicily, Corsica, or Norway. 
The Cypriots call this mineral " The Cotton Stone."* 
Journey to 
Nicotin. 
Early on the morning of June the eighth, 
having procured an order for mules and asses, 
and ^firman to authorize the expedition, we left 
the Ceres, and set out for Nicotia, the Leucusia 
or Leucosia of the Greeks, and present capital of 
Cyprus. We were detained at Larneca until 
It is often supposed, that the art of manufacturing an incombustible 
cloth by means oi Amianthus is not possessed by the Moderns ; but the 
inhabitants of a certain district in Siberia are in the practice of pre- 
paring thread by mixing flax with this substance, and then spinning it. 
After weaving with this thread, the cloth is exposed to the action of 
fire, which consumes the flax, and leaves an incombustible web. 
This, according to Dioscorides (as above cited), was the method used 
by the Antients. The principal manufacture of Amianthine cloth 
existed in this island, the mineral being found here in abundance and 
perfection. The art of making it was also formerly known in iwrfia. If 
we might rely upon the mineralogy of the Antients, real diamonds were 
once found in Cyjn'us; but Pliny's observations concerning them 
(Hist. Nat. lib. xxxvii. c. 4.) although he describes the Cyprian 
diamond as " efficacissinuis in medicind," prove they were nothing 
more than the sort of Quartz before mentioned. The Aetites, or Eagle 
Stone, which they superstitiously esteemed, owing to the aid it was 
supposed to render to women in labour, is still valued by the ignorant 
inhabitants for this, its imaginary, virtue. Pliny considered the 
Jasper of Cyprus as ranking next in perfection to that of Seythia ; and 
Crystal, he says, was turned up by the plough. The other minerals 
of the island were : Emerald (a name they gave to any greenish 
transparent stone), Agate, Opal, Sapphire, Lazutite (which they 
called Lapis Cyanetis), Mica, or Muscovy Glass, Alum, Nitre, Sulphur, 
Gypsum, and great abundance of Salt. The latter was chiefly collected 
from the environs of CniUM, where the salt marshes now are. 
