228 



MOUNT ATHOS. 



which they proceed, the following is the result collected by us in a 

 conversation carried on by means of our interpreter. 



A speculator who can raise a few thousand piastres, buys the right 

 of digging a certain extent of ground for a year from the Porte, to 

 whom the royalty belongs ; a band or gang of workmen join him in 

 the undertaking. The original speculator then purchases machinery, 

 erects furnaces, makes charcoal, and is at the whole expence of set- 

 ting the gang at work. The produce of their labour is then divided ; 

 all the lead is the property of the Sultan, a fifth part of which is 

 granted to the Aga who collects the revenue of the Sultan. The lat- 

 ter has also a monopoly of the silver, for which he previously stipu- 

 lates to give eighty piastres per oke (not so much as three shillings 

 an ounce) to the party who has obtained the licence to work the 

 mine. The sum received for the silver is at the end of the year thus 

 shared : one-seventh part to the person who advanced all the money ; 

 and the remainder to the band of workmen according to a scale pre- 

 viously settled. 



It appears, however, that the richest veins have been exhausted, 

 and that the mines are now worked by almost compulsory means. 

 The labourers told us, with tears in their eyes, that during the last 

 two years their division had not amounted to more than two paras 

 a-day, but that the Sultan insisted on the works being carried on. 

 About four or five thousand okes of lead are now produced annually, 

 and about fifty okes of silver reach the mint at Constantinople ; but 

 we were told that one vein has been known to produce four hundred 

 okes of silver in a year, and that ore has sometimes been found so 

 rich as to give six drachms of silver out of an oke (four hundred 

 drachms) of lead ; though the present average is only about two 

 drachms and a half of silver to the oke of lead. 



April 22. — We left Nisvoro early in the morning, and at two miles 

 from the town passed the residence of the- Aga, who is too distant 

 from the mines to be able personally to detect any mal-practices that 

 may be carried on there. At 6\ 40'. we reached a most beautiful 

 plain, extending for many miles, covered with the richest verdure, 



