DEFICIENCY OF WOOD. 285 



earned the necessary money, or when they are wanted 

 at home. There is however now a regular labouring 

 class, which ensures the continuation of the necessary 

 work at all times. The officials of the mine were 

 nearly almost without exception Germans, among them 

 a sprinkling from the Baltic provinces of Russia. The 

 business language has therefore always been German. 

 It is comical to hear Tartars, Persians, and Russians 

 murder the somewhat corrupted German names of 

 implements and operations and even the terms of 

 abuse common among the miners of the Harz. 



The mountain, rich in sulphurated copper-ore, is 

 situated in the neighbourhood of Kedabeg, and is 

 connected with it by a so-called haulage-line. More- 

 over, as has been already mentioned, a narrow-gauge 

 line has been constructed by us, which runs in the 

 river valley of the wild Kalakent brook far into the 

 forests yielding wood and charcoal to the beautifully 

 situated branch smeltery Kalakent, and from there to 

 the wood wharves on the Shamkhor. For many years 

 this mountain railway ensured a supply of combustible 

 material, but carefully as the cleared spaces were 

 replanted in accordance with the principles of forest 

 management, yet at last want of wood threatened to 

 bring the smelting- works to a standstill. However 

 necessity itself is usually the best helper in emergencies; 

 which also held good in this case. We have recently 

 succeeded, I believe for the first time in the world, 

 in replacing coals for smelting by the raw material 

 of petroleum, naphtha, and by masut, the residuum in 



