Mineral wealth of the Banat--Wild ride to Dognacska--Equipment for
a riding tour--An afternoon nap and its consequences--Copper
mines--Self-help--Bare insects--Moravicza--Rare minerals--Deutsch
Bogsan--Reschitza.
The neighbourhood of Oravicza is well worth exploring, especially by
those who like knocking about with a geological hammer. The mines in the
Banat were perhaps worked earlier than any other in this part of Europe.
The minerals of the district present a very remarkable variety. Von
Cotta, I imagine, is the best authority upon the Banat ore deposits.
I had heard a good deal of the silver and copper mines of Dognacska, and
wishing to visit them, I induced my friend H---- to accompany me. We
arranged to go on horseback. I was very glad to escape the "carts of the
country," which, notwithstanding the atrocious roads, are the usual mode
of conveyance. It had always been my intention to ride about the
country, and with this view I brought my saddle and travelling apparatus
from London--English-made articles bear knocking about so much better
than similar things purchased on the Continent.
I had an ordinary pigskin saddle, furnished with plenty of metal rings.
I had four saddle-bags in all, made of a material known as waterproof
flax cloth. It has some advantages over leather, but is too apt to wear
into holes. It is of importance to have the straps of your saddle-bags
very strongly attached. It is not enough that they are sewn an inch into
the bag, they should extend down the sides; for want of this I had to
repair mine several times. Attached to my bridle I had a very convenient
arrangement for picketing my horse. It consisted of a rope about twelve
feet long, neatly rolled round itself; this was kept strapped on the
left side of the horse's head.
The chief pride of my outfit was a cooking-apparatus, the last thing
out, which merits a few words of description. It consisted of a round
tin box, eight inches in diameter, capable of boiling three pints of
water in two minutes and a half; of its own self-consciousness, the
sauce-pan could evolve into a frying-pan, besides other adaptations,
including space for a Russian lamp--a vessel holding spirit--with
cellular cavities for salt, pepper, matches, not forgetting cup, spoon,
and plate. The Russian lamp is a very useful contrivance, in case of
open-air cooking; it gives a flame six or seven inches long, which is
not easily affected by wind or draught.
Amongst the stores I took out from England was some "compressed tea,"
which is very portable. In riding, all powdery substances should be
avoided; I had on one occasion practical experience of this. I had
procured some horse-medicine, and giving my animal one dose, I packed
the rest very carefully, as I thought; on opening my saddle-bag after a
ride of twenty miles, I found, to my disgust, that this wretched white
powder had mixed itself up with everything. I wished I had made the
horse his own medicine-chest, and given him his three doses at once.
Let the weather be ever so warm in Hungary, it is not wise to take even
a day's ride without a good warm plaid; the changes of temperature are
often very sudden, and herein is the danger of fever. The peasant says,
"In summer take thy _bunda_ (fur cloak)."
To complete the catalogue of my travelling appendages, I may mention a
revolver, a bowie-knife, a compass, good maps of the country, and a
flask. My flask held exactly a bottle of wine; it was covered with thick
felt, which on being soaked in water has the effect of keeping the wine
quite cool for an incredibly long time, even in the hottest weather. I
have been told that the Arabs in the desert have long been up to this
dodge with respect to their water-bottles, which are suffered to leak a
little to keep up the evaporation. The food I carried was of course
renewed from time to time, according to circumstances. Naturally I
economised the lamp spirit whenever I could obtain sticks for boiling
the water, as the spirit could not always be procured in the Hungarian
villages.
In starting for Dognacska and Reschitza, we had before us a ride of more
than thirty miles through a very rough country, and with uncertain
prospects of accommodation, so I took with me all my travelling
"contraptions," as they say in the west of England. The weather was
excessively hot the morning H---- and I started on our expedition. About
noon, after we had ridden some two hours, the sun's rays beat down upon
us with such force that we made an unintentional halt on coming to a
well by the wayside. It was one of those picturesque wells so familiar
in Eastern landscape--a beam balanced on a lofty pole, with a rod
hanging from one end, to which is attached the bucket for drawing
water.
Not far from the well was one of those curious tree hay-stacks to be
seen in some parts of Hungary. It is the practice to clear away a
certain number of the middle branches of a tree, then a wooden platform
is constructed, on which a quantity of hay is placed in store for winter
use. This mushroom-shaped hay-rick receives a cover of thatch, out of
the centre of which comes the tree-top.
The shade afforded by this wigwam on stilts looked most inviting just
then, and we yielded to the seduction. We got off, and throwing
ourselves at full length on the grass, allowed our horses to graze close
to us, without taking the trouble to picket them.
The heat of the noonday was perfectly overpowering. The momentary shade
was an intense relief, for we had been in the unmitigated glare of the
sun the whole morning. Of course we quickly had out our cigar-cases, and
puffing the grateful weed, we were soon in full enjoyment of dignified
ease. We were in that idle mood when, one says with the lotus-eaters,
"taking no care"--
"There is no joy but calm!
Why should we only _toil_, the roof and crown of things."
"Why, indeed, should we toil?" I repeated languidly, at the same time
gently and slowly breaking off the end of my cigar-ash.
"Why, indeed?" echoed my friend in a sleepy tone; and, unlike his usual
wont, he was quite disinclined to argue the point, being too lazy for
anything.
In another moment we had both sprung to our feet, most thoroughly roused
from our apathy; the fact was, a big brute of a sheep-dog suddenly
jumped in upon us, barking loud and fiercely. We very soon found means
to rid ourselves of the dog, but that was the least part of the
incident. It appeared that the noise and suddenness of the outburst had
so frightened our horses that they took to their heels and galloped off
as hard as they could tear. Of course we were after them like a shot,
but they had gone all manner of ways. I spotted my little Servian nag
breasting the hill to our right in grand style; the saddle-bags were
beating his flanks. A pretty race we had after those brutes of horses!
We had to jump ditches, and struggle up sandbanks, tear through
undercover, and finally H---- got "stogged" in a treacherous green
marsh. Was there ever anything so exasperating and ridiculous?
After running more or less for three-quarters of an hour in a sweltering
heat, we came upon the horses in an open glade in the wood, where they
were calmly regaling in green pastures, like lotus-eaters themselves.
Never from that day forward have I forgotten the necessary duty of
picketing my horse.
It was well on in the afternoon before we got to Dognacska, a mere
mining village, but prettily situated in a narrow valley. On
approaching, we found it to be a more uncivilised place than we had
expected, and we had not expected much. The children ran away screaming
at the sight of two horsemen, so travellers, I expect, are unknown in
these parts. We found out a little inn, indicated by a wisp of straw
hanging above the door, and here we asked to be accommodated; they were
profuse in promises, but as there was no one to look after the horses,
we had to attend to them ourselves. The woman of the house said the men
were all out, but would be back presently. We only took a little bread
and cheese, but ordered a substantial supper to be ready for us on our
return later in the evening. The fact was, we were in a hurry to be off
to look at the works. Lead, silver, iron, and copper are found at
Dognacska, but the working at present is a dead-alive operation. The
blast-furnaces for making pig-iron are of recent construction, but the
smelting-furnaces were very antiquated.
It was the same answer everywhere, "All belongs to the Marquis of
Carrabas;" in other words, the States Railway Company owns both mines
and forests in all directions throughout the Banat, though at the same
time I was told that they do not undertake metallic mining.
From what I gathered it would seem that the mines round here are not
really very rich. You cannot depend on the working as in Cornwall, for
they are without regular lodes. A rich "pocket" occurs here and there,
but then is lost, the deposit not holding on to any depth.
We made a considerable round, and returned with appetites very sharp
set, and counted on the chicken with _paprika_ that we had ordered to be
ready for us. On arriving at the little inn, great was our disgust to
find it utterly silent and deserted; neither man, woman, nor child was
to be found in or about the place. With some difficulty we caught some
children, who were peering at us behind the wall of a neighbour's house,
and from these blubbering little animals, who I believe thought we were
going to make mince meat of them, we at length extracted the fact that
the people of the inn were gone off haymaking. This was really too bad,
for if they had only told us, we could have made our arrangements
accordingly, but here we were starving and not the remotest prospect of
supper. There was no use wasting unparliamentary language, so I began
foraging in all directions, while H---- busied himself in cutting up
wood to make a fire, a process not too easy with an uncommonly blunt
axe. My researches into the interior of the dwelling were not
encouraging; the fowl was not there, neither was the _paprika_. At
length I discovered some eggs and a chunk of stale bread stowed away in
a corner; there were a great many things in that corner, but "they were
not of my search"--ignorance is bliss.
H---- had done his duty by the fire; he had even persuaded the water to
boil, which I looked upon as the beginning of soup. Happily for us I had
my co-operative stores with me. From the depths of one of my saddle-bags
I drew out a small jar of Liebig's meat--a spoonful or two of this gave
quality to the soup. I added ten eggs and some small squares of bread,
flavouring the whole mess with a pinch of dried herbs, salt, and
pepper--all from "the stores." The result was a capital compound: in
fact I never tasted a better soup of its kind; we enjoyed it immensely.
We had barely finished when in came the woman of the house; she looked
very much surprised, grumbled at our making such a large fire, and made
no apology for her absence.
No one came in to clean and feed our horses, and though I offered a
liberal _trinkgeld_ to any man or boy who would attend to them, not a
soul could I get, they all slunk away. I believe they are afraid of
horses at Dognacska. Self-help was the order of the day, and we just had
to look after the poor brutes ourselves.
We slept in the inn. My bed was made up in the place where I had found
the eggs and bread. I imagine it was the "guest-corner." I do not wish
to be sensational, and I am no entomologist, therefore I will not
narrate my experiences that night; but I thought of the Irishman who
said, "if the fleas had all been of one mind, they could have pulled him
out of bed." Fortunately the summer nights are short; we were up with
the early birds, and started before the heat of the day for Moravicza,
another mining village.
It was a pretty ride. We went for some way alongside a mineral tramway,
which followed the bend of a charming valley. Then we came upon a new
piece of road, made entirely of the whitest marble; it looked almost
like snow. Afterwards our track lay through a dense forest of majestic
trees. We could not have found our way unassisted, but one of the mine
inspectors from Dognacska had been sent with us. It was a delicious
ride, the air still cool and fresh. Sometimes we were in the forest,
and later, skirting a rocky ravine, we followed for a while a mountain
stream. It was rough work for the horses, and once, when leading my
horse over a narrow foot-bridge, he slipped off and rolled right over in
the bed of the stream. Luckily he was none the worse for the accident:
these small Servian horses bear a great deal of knocking about. It was
surprising that the baggage did not suffer, but except getting a little
wet, there was no harm done.
This district is famous, I believe, for several kinds of rare beetles
and butterflies. I saw some beautiful butterflies myself during our
ride.
Before reaching Moravicza we passed some large iron mines, but they were
not in full swing. In the last century the copper mines of this district
yielded extraordinary returns. Baron Born, in his "Travels in the
Banat," mentions a deposit of copper ore reaching to the amazing depth
of 240 feet. Some very fine syenite occurs in large blocks close to
Moravicza, which might be very valuable if made more accessible. The
village is half hidden in a narrow valley. Here we were most hospitably
received by Herr W----. In his collection of minerals he has many rare
specimens from this locality, which is peculiarly rich in regard to
variety. This gentleman kindly gave me some good specimens of magnetite,
greenockite (sulphate of cadmium), aurichalcite, Ludwigite, and garnet.
Leaving Moravicza, we rode on to Deutsch Bogsan, then to Reschitza,
where we arrived in the evening. Here we found a tolerable inn, for it
is a place of some size. We remained two days here; it is a flourishing
little place, the centre of the States Railway Works. They make a large
quantity of steel rails, any number of which will be wanted if half of
the projected lines are carried out, which are only waiting the
settlement of the Eastern Question.
In Reschitza there are large blast-furnaces and Bessemer converters.
Enormous quantities of charcoal are produced; in short, on all sides
there is evidence of mining activity. Narrow-gauge lines run in every
direction, serving the coal mines; there is besides a railway for the
public from Reschitza to Deutsch Bogsan, and from the latter place a
branch communicates with the main line between Buda-Pest and Basiash.
The country round Reschitza is rather pretty, but more tame than what we
had seen in other parts. We returned to Oravicza by a shorter route,
riding the whole distance in one day, which we did easily, for the roads
were not so bad, and it was not much over thirty miles. In Hungary it is
frequently more a question of roads than of actual distance.