The animals of Armenia—beside the human—are in general about the same as are found in the United States, though perhaps the domestic animals of Armenia, like cows, oxen, horses, mules and donkeys, sheep and goats, are a little smaller in size than are found in America. In olden times, the Armenian horses were as famous as are the Arabian horses now. “The rich pastures of Media and Armenia furnished excellent horses for the Medo-Persian Army.” (See Ezek. 27:14.)
There are some valuable mines in Armenia. Traces of old gold mines are found midway between Trebizond and Erzerum. Some even think that the locality of “Ophir,” from whence King Solomon fetched gold to decorate the temple at Jerusalem, was in this region. It may be interesting to some to repeat that the ancient river Acampsis, identified by some with the Pison of the Bible, “which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold,” does really run through this part of the country.[13]
There are rich silver and copper mines in the vicinity of Karpert (Harput), the copper mines alone yield 2,250,000 pounds annually. There are mines of sulphur, sulphurate of lead, antimony and silver. The mines of coal and iron are found in abundance, but not in full use, those that are operated are very poorly done. There is a little town situated on one of the tributaries of western Euphrates, called Divrig, where the writer spent some time in the two-fold capacity of a teacher and preacher for the reformed Armenian Church, and he well remembers how the people used easily to avail themselves of the native masses of iron, with primitive skill, converting them into rude implements for farming or other purposes.
There are mineral springs, hot and cold, at various places, with their peculiar curative powers; they have become “Bethesdas” of the invalids, and are frequented like the places of pilgrimage, by those who suffer any ailment which may be amenable to treatment and who are able to repair to such restorative resorts. Rock salt and salt springs also abound in Armenia. They are especially inexhaustible in the vicinity of Moosh. A salt stream, whose springs are through and from the salt rocks, which would bring a good income in the hands of a wise government, unprofitably flows into, and mingles, with the waters of the Euphrates.
Some of the ancient and modern cities of Armenia still in existence are the following: Van, Amid—now Diarhekie—Palu, Malatia, Kars, Erzerum, Etchmeadsin, Erivan, Sivas, Karpert (Harput), Manazgherd, Bitles and Moosh. The following is a list of some of the ancient cities in ruins: Armanir, Ardashad, Valarshabad, Dicranagherd and Ani.
The largest part of Armenia until the present year (1916) was under the Turkish rule. Since the spring of this year, the Russians have been occupying the country, and the fate of Armenia is still uncertain, but the hope and the prayer of all good people is that Armenia will be free from the yoke of the bloody Turk, whose reign in western Asia and in eastern Europe has been a curse to humanity in general and to the Armenians in particular.
The English traveler Sandys, who visited the Turkish empire nearly three centuries ago (about 1638) “has described with truth and eloquence the unhappy condition of the regions subject to the destructive despotism,” in the following words:
“These countries, once so glorious and famous for their happy estate, are now, through vice and ingratitude become the most deplorable spectacles of extreme misery. The wild beasts of mankind have broken in upon them, and rooted out all civility, and the pride of a stern, and barbarous tyrant, possessing the thrones of ancient dominions, who aims only at the height of greatness and sensuality hath reduced so great and goodly a part of the world to that lamentable distress and servitude under which it now faints and groans. Those rich lands at this present time remain waste and overgrown with bushes and receptacles of wild beasts, of thieves and murderers; large territories dispeopled or thinly inhabited; goodly cities made desolate, sumptuous buildings become ruins, glorious temples either subverted or prostituted to impiety; true religion discountenanced and opposed; all nobility extinguished; no light of learning permitted, no virtue cherished; violence and rapine exulting over all, and leaving no security, save an abject mind and unlooked on poverty.”
What would Mr. Sandys—this good Englishman—say if he were alive now and had seen what happened within the last hundred years; how these “wild beasts of mankind” again and again broke in upon the defenceless Christians, and the barbarous tyrants ordered their wholesale massacres; and how England protected and prolonged the lives of these wild beasts and barbarous tyrants over a hundred years; and how goodly cities have been made desolate and the ancient dominions have been turned into a veritable hell by the sword and the fire by these despots; and how England is now paying dearly for her past sins against humanity and Christianity for defending such a lowering faith, whose votaries defied Jesus to come and save His followers from the burning churches, after they had set fire to them to consume the helpless Christian men, women, and children who had fled thither for refuge from the sword? He would have said like others of his mold—England lacked men of Cromwell’s type.
The friends of Armenia still hope that she may have yet a bright future before her, when peace and tranquillity is restored; that she may yield, or contribute many valuable discoveries and manuscripts from the old monasteries and ruined churches and furnish a fuller knowledge of the history of the early Christian churches in the east; and that they may swell the band of missionaries of the cross and render good to her foes for the evil she has received for centuries.