* I have made this calculation from an examination of the scenes in which ships are alternatively represented as at anchor and under weigh.  I know of vessels of smaller size, and consequently with a smaller crew, but I know of none larger or more fully manned.

** The details are taken from the only representation of a naval battle which we possess up to this moment, viz. that of which I shall have occasion to speak further on in connection with the reign of Ramses III.

The first colony of which the Phoenicians made themselves masters was that island of Cyprus whose low, lurid outline they could see on fine summer evenings in the glow of the western sky.  Some hundred and ten miles in length and thirty-six in breadth, it is driven like a wedge into the angle which Asia Minor makes with the Syrian coast:  it throws out to the north-east a narrow strip of land, somewhat like an extended finger pointing to where the two coasts meet at the extremity of the gulf of Issos.  A limestone cliff, of almost uniform height throughout, bounds, for half its length at least, the northern side of the island, broken occasionally by short deep valleys, which open out into creeks deeply embayed.  A scattered population of fishermen exercised their calling in this region, and small towns, of which we possess only the Greek or Grecised names—­Karpasia, Aphrodision, Kerynia, Lapethos—­led there a slumbering existence.  Almost in the centre of the island two volcanic peaks, Troodes and Olympos, face each other, and rise to a height of nearly 7000 feet, the range of mountains to which they belong—­that of Aous—­forming the framework of the island.  The spurs of this range fall by a gentle gradient towards the south, and spread out either into stony slopes favourable to the culture of the vine, or into great maritime flats fringed with brackish lagoons.  The valley which lies on the northern side of this chain runs from sea to sea in an almost unbroken level.  A scarcely perceptible watershed divides the valley into two basins similar to those of Syria, the larger of the two lying opposite to the Phoenician coast.  The soil consists of black mould, as rich as that of Egypt, and renewed yearly by the overflowing of the Pediaeos and its affluents.  Thick forests occupied the interior, promising inexhaustible resources to any naval power.  Even under the Koman emperors the Cypriotes boasted that they could build and fit out a ship from the keel to the masthead without looking to resources beyond those of their own island.  The ash, pine, cypress, and oak flourished on the sides of the range of Aous, while cedars grew there to a greater height and girth than even on the Lebanon.  Wheat, barley, olive trees, vines, sweet-smelling woods for burning on the altar, medicinal plants such as the poppy and the ladanum, henna for staining with a deep orange colour the lips, eyelids, palm, nails, and fingertips of the women, all found here