Читать книгу Around the Black Sea. Asia Minor, Armenia, Caucasus, Circassia, Daghestan, the Crimea, Roumania онлайн

104 страница из 123

The Caucasians have always been famous as goldsmiths and silversmiths, and in every museum of Europe you can find examples of their skill and taste. Even to-day in the bazaars of old Tiflis, long streets are occupied exclusively by cunning artificers making cups and flagons, handles for swords and knives, pistols and guns, ornaments for the body and the household, bowls and dishes for the table, and all sorts of decorative and useful objects of the precious metals. They are especially skilful in combining iron and silver, and iron and gold, although this art has never reached the same perfection there that is found in similar products in Toledo, Spain.

There are rumours of coal mines, and they probably exist, but the abundance of timber has not encouraged the people to work them. Iron and copper are found frequently, from which the ancients always had an abundant supply. About twenty-five miles up the railway from Batoum is an extensive operation by the Caucasus Copper Company, an American-English syndicate. They are getting out a good deal of copper, an average of 120 tons a month, which is shipped to Moscow and St. Petersburg for local use. About eight hundred hands are employed in the mines and in the smelters.