CHAP. XXVII. ARABIA AND PERSIA. 329 



of Erserum. The amount is not known. Every 

 three months a caravan is despatched to Con- 

 stantinople, consisting of about fifty horses, with 

 the bars of silver. As horses cannot travel in 

 those countries with a greater weight than about 

 one hundred and sixty pounds, that number could 

 not convey more than eight or ten thousand 

 pounds, which, repeated four times, would amount 

 to from one hundred to one hundred and twenty 

 thousand pounds sterling in value. The workmen 

 employed in these mines are, or were, chiefly 

 Greeks 1 . Some silver is found in the lead mines 

 of Argena, but probably to a small extent. No 

 gold is now known to be found in those countries 

 at present subject to Turkey, which, in the remote 

 ages of antiquity, are recorded to have yielded 

 that metal most abundantly. 



In Arabia no mines of the precious metals are Arabia and 

 known to exist, and from the great scarcity of 

 fuel, if any were found, it would probably be un- 

 profitable to work them. In Persia, though in 

 ancient times silver was said to have been produced, 

 none of the precious metals have for many years 

 been sought for, though, from the testimony of an 

 enlightened native of that country, we have recently 

 been assured that it is found in the lead mines 

 combined with that metal, in such quantities as 

 would well repay the capital destined to that 



1 Hassel, vol. xiii. p. 123. 



