Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - IX. New plans for irrigation. Echmiadzin
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
ARMENIA AND THE NEAR EAST
222
possible at long last to make life fairly safe and prospcrous
for an incredibly maltreated people. Accordingly we con
sidered that we had every reason to believe that the Govern
ments of the Great Powers would gladly give their adhesion
to this plan, and thus honour, without incurring any great
sacrifice, some, at least, of their pledges to the Armenians.
The Last Days in Erivan.
We had still to see the work that was being done on the
new electrical power-station which was being built in the
Zanga Valley, north-west of Erivan. We motored out to
see it in the morning of June 3oth. The workmen were just
constructing the walls. We went farther up the valley and
saw the new canal for the water, which was already complete,
and the intake. The canal was a elever piece of engineering,
and the works as a whole seemed very good and solid. It
was curious to see how all the sacks of sand and gravel, for
the concrete used in the various buildings of the station, were
brought on pack-asses from far up the valley; the future
seemed to meet the past on the bridle-path along which the
animals came. Near the sandpit at the head of the valley
from which this sand and gravel was being fetched we had
a rest by a cool, refreshing spring which was gushing out of
the rock underneath some large, shady trees. Some of the
workmen came with their hands and caps full of apricots and
mulberries that they had picked on the hillside just above us,
and we had a delicious meal of them.
As we drove back through the streets of Erivan we suddenly
stopped in front of what looked like a factory. We were
led into a large courtyard, and there received courteously by
a big man who evidently was the manager, and who took us
down several flights of wide steps to some enormous cellars.
It turned out that we were in the Government factory called
" Ararat," where they made wine and brandy, and were to
be shown what they could do in that line. The amount
produced in the previous year (1924) had been 30,000 hecto
litres of wine and 7,400 hectolitres of brandy, for export to
all parts of Russia and the Near East.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
