628 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sent out. The region, which comprises 8,200 geographical miles, is 

 rich, immensely rich, in subterranean treasures. It is penetrated by 

 veins of silver and gold. Up to the year 1861, seven hundred and 

 thirty mines were opened, and two hundred and sixty abandoned. 

 The precious metals are not the principal treasure ; the region also 

 contains copper, tin, antimony, lead, and iron, and includes an im- 

 mense coal-field. The surface of the land is correspondingly produc- 

 tive, and will compare well in agricultural capacity with the best parts 

 of Germany. The climate is generally mild. During four months a 

 hot summer prevails, which is followed by two months of autumn, 

 four of winter, and two of spring. The mean temperature is not high 

 enough perfectly to ripen grapes, but oranges grow well in the south- 

 ern parts. The fact that the people live to be very old is the best 

 testimony to the good qualities of the climate. When I traveled over 

 the country, in 1876, I was assured that only four doctors were settled 

 within the whole of the vast territory, and they did not live in very 

 great luxury. Men die here of old age without the help of medicine, 

 and live long and happily without doctors. 



Since the house of Romanoff has taken possession of the country, 

 any one can settle there, cultivate such land as suits him, and erect 

 factories, on the single condition of paying an annual rent of thirty 

 copeks about seventeen cents per acre ; but the fee of the land re- 

 mains the Czar's ; the tenant can cut the wood, but the soil belongs to 

 the imperial domain. He can not mine for gold and silver, or other 

 metals, for these go with the title to the land. As it always has been 

 and is now generally in the Russian Empire, the old ways are en- 

 croached upon in every direction. The Romanoffs had for the ex- 

 ploitation of the mines mingled a number of their serfs from Russia 

 with the men already there, and no one could enter upon a systematic 

 or regular cultivation of the soil. The serf -laborers, with their wives 

 and children, received as much as was necessary to satisfy their wants. 

 Till 1861 the population consisted, with rare exceptions, of imperial 

 officers and socage-laborers, mining experts, and superintendents, who 

 were always trained men, and contributed much to the amelioration of 

 the manners of their underlings, who, in other respects, had much to 

 complain of in their treatment. On the 1st of March, 1861, there 

 were living on the crown-lands 145,630 souls, or, in round numbers, 

 350,000 persons for in Russia women and minors are not enumerated 

 in the statistical reports. In the mines alone more than 25,000 men 

 were employed, when Czar Alexander, with a stroke of the pen, abol- 

 ished serfdom, not out of humanity, but in order to weaken the politi- 

 cal power of the Staroste. 



The serfs in the mines represented only about half of the 25,000 

 miners or 12,000 men and became free peasants without owning 

 any property in the real sense of that word, all lands belonging to 

 the Czar ; but they received as much land as they needed, on the 



