Chapter 98：Sharks - Megalodon

It was necessary to go to the Fisherman Mountains through the foothill plain, the mountains were near a large lake. It has been known since the time of the Tertiary era. Some three hundred thousand years ago in this lake, but then it was not a lake but part of the shallow water of Tethys, sharks, Megalodon swam. They were 15 meters long, the mouth could accommodate 10 healthy men or half of the Indian elephant. The teeth of such sharks reached 20 cm in length and 10 cm wide. Why did they pay so much attention to this? everything is simple in the steppe and desert, the former day of shallow water, often found petrified, black teeth of these sharks.

Previously, these teeth were lying around and cost nothing, but now in the age of the market, everything had its value. Teeth cost from $ 10 to 70 for 1 piece. Good money. If you could collect $ 1,500 from a box of 40 pieces. Although individual teeth could cost 1 piece 470 dollars.

Near the mountains, Fishermen often found such teeth before. On topographic maps, the name appeared only in 1878, and before that, foreigners called all these mountains the Black Mountains or the Bright Mountains. Why were there two such names? Elementary, the Europeans confused the name of the mountains, as they were still afraid to go into the mountains, although they conquered the territory of Small-An.

Therefore, the territory of the mountains, their orography for the first 10 years, they were poorly represented. Only after receiving protection in the form of five hundred horsemen, two guns and one rocket battery, these so-called European scientists went to explore the mountains. Their research was accompanied by local battles, killed and wounded by local residents. Nothing personal, it was scientific research. Somewhere the issue was decided by silver, somewhere gold was required, and sometimes guns.

That was the time. Just in 1878, one of such scientists guessed to ask the name of the mountain from local residents. These were steppes, they often found petrified teeth of sharks, petrified shells, sometimes old fish bones. Since the Neolithic, the lake was larger and its waters were washed by the northern slopes of the Fisherman mountains. Therefore, in the mountains above, Neolithic people settled. They had many camps there, they were fishermen. Millennia passed, and in the days of Small-An. Neolithic was 3000 years ago. Since in different countries of the world, various archaeological periods began at different time intervals.

Since then the name of the Fishermen Mountains has gone.

Having left the base camp early in the light Mountains, the company headed down the mountain road of the gorge. On one side were steep slopes covered with dense vegetation and rocky ledges. On the other hand t, here was a cliff that went down hundreds of meters. Below there flowed a small but turbulent river with the name of the mountain gorge "Life". A short and concise name, water gives life, it brought from the mountains to the steppe, where since the time of the Late Paleolithic, that is, about 48,000 years ago, people began to sow wheat, alfalfa. In the foothill steppe, the first rudiments of the beginning of agriculture were just discovered. Ancient irrigation canals, ancient fields and several old sources of water known since the Eneolithic, that is, the copper age,

It was early spring, the mountains are still cold, but the first wild plants are already blooming. Locals went out into the mountains early in the morning and gathered the roots of the "mountain onion"; in cities I,t was very much appreciated. From it, along with the addition of other wild and garden greens, from February to the end of May, green pies were prepared. Since at the end of winter ginning of spring there were no fresh vitamins yet. These pies were very popular among urban residents. Prices for greens grew, and the mountaineers could make good money these months, about 300-400 dollars a month, while their usual average salary barely exceeded 120 dollars.

Some of the highlanders were engaged in tourism, they were guides, they remade their houses into guest houses. A night cost from 40 to 60 dollars. The amount included breakfast, a 1-hour tour of the local mountains with a show of attractions, mainly these were the old ruins of the late Middle Ages.

Dinner was already paid, plus $ 10 and plus $ 15 for a master class on how to cook sheep meat on fire.

Others, together with foreign companies, opened additional craft workshops for the production of medium-quality carpets from local raw materials, and the manufacture of souvenir products.

So the average salary was $ 120, as mentioned earlier, and since the highlanders initially earned only as shepherds, their salary was from 50 to 70 dollars. Someone was selling vegetables from the garden; someone was collecting medicinal herbs and preparing traditional medicine infusions. At times, they could receive from a generous client a one-time payment of 10,000 and sometimes 100,000 dollars.