CHAP. XXVII.
ARABIA AND PERSIA.
329
of Erserum. The amount is not known. Everythree months a caravan is despatched to Con-stantinople , consisting of about fifty horses, withthe bars of silver. As horses cannot travel inthose countries with a greater weight than aboutone hundred and sixty pounds, that number couldnot convey more than eight or ten thousandpounds, which, repeated four times, would amountto from one hundred to one hundred and twentythousand pounds sterling in value. The workmenemployed in these mines are, or were, chieflyGreeks h Some silver is found in the lead minesof Argena, but probably to a small extent. Nogold is now known to be found, in those countriesat present subject to Turkey, which, in the remoteages of antiquity, are recorded to have yieldedthat metal most abundantly.
In Arabia no mines of the precious metals areknown to exist, and from the great scarcity offuel, if any were found, it would probably be un-profitable to work them. In Persia , though inancient times silver was said to have been produced,none of the precious metals have for many yearsbeen sought for, though, from the testimony of anenlightened native of that country, we have recentlybeen assured that it is found in the lead minescombined with that metal, in such quantities aswould well repay the capital destined to that
Hassel, vol, xiii, p. 123.