l66 PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 



From Tiflis we visited the great copper mines at 

 Kedabek, on the east of Lake Goktcha. These mines, 

 which have been worked from ancient times, now belong 

 to the firm of Siemens Brothers, the well-known elec- 

 tricians who constructed the Indo-European line of tele- 

 graph. Some two thousand hands are employed in all : 

 most of them Armenians and Tartars. The best European 

 methods and appliances are used in the working : yet I 

 noticed among the implements the same pick and shovel 

 I had made in Tiflis ; but how could it be decided whether 

 these were imported by the German firm or had been 

 previously used by the natives ? One of the managers 

 suggested that I might satisfy myself on this head by 

 cross-examining the oldest man in the place — an Armenian 

 who had worked in Kedabek before the Siemens came 

 to it. He was sent for, and before long made his appear- 

 ance : a venerable old man of eighty-four (if I remember 

 rightly), with snowy hair and beard, and a considerable 

 difficulty of hearing. Our interpreter asked one of the 

 clerks in Russian, who passed on the query in Armenian, 

 Whether the pick and shovel sketched on the bit of paper 

 before him had been brought here by Siemens Brothers, 

 or whether he remembered them before the Germans 

 came to the mine ? Before the reply had time to sift 

 through its double delivery, I saw from the old man's 

 action what it was. " No : that pick and that shovel were 

 " the old tools of the country before the Siemens ever 

 " came to Kedabek." 



The " old tools of the country : " and what a country ! 

 A day or two after, we were driven to the summit of the 

 mountain above the mines by William Bolton, the general 

 manager (who is of English descent). Near the top we 

 left the sledge to examine an old and decaying oak in the 

 forest, which is considered a holy tree by the Armenians 

 at the mines. " They come here on Sundays," we were 

 told, " and burn candles to the Virgin at the foot of that 



I 



