340 Gold Produce of Siberia. 



tion from destruction may be said to insure to the soil produc- 

 tive of vegetables, a constant source of manure ; the vegeta- 

 bles in such a climate as this supporting innumerable insects. 

 And it might be a lesson to man to husband as much as pos- 

 sible all excrementitious matters, from whatever species of 

 animals derived, and bestow them on the soil, as its peculiar 

 and appropriate fertilizers. 



BarbAJ)OES, 5th February 1846. 



On the Gold Produce of Siberia, By Sir R. I. MURCHISON, 

 F.R.S., &c. &c &c. 



" To this subject, I wish to point the attention of statists 

 and geographers ; for it has already begun to occupy the 

 thoughts of politicians, and may eventually have a very 

 marked influence upon all civilized nations, in changing the 

 relative value of gold as a standard. 



" In Russia, as in the Brazils, the great mass of the metals 

 is derived from local detritus or alluvia, usually called gold 

 sand ; but for which (as far as Russia is concerned), the 

 term shingle would be much more appropriate. With very 

 trifling exceptions, all such auriferous detritus in the Russian 

 Empire, occur on the eastern or Siberian side of the Ural. 

 Slightly known, and near Ekaterinburg only, in the days of 

 Pallas, it was not until the reigns of Paul and Alexander, 

 that these gold alluvia were found to extend in a certain zone 

 to the north and south of that locality, throughout 5° or 6° of 

 latitude, and that eventually gold was extracted from them 

 to the annual value of about half a million sterling. Not- 

 withstanding the increased exploration of late years, and 

 many researches in the northern and southern portions of the 

 chain, this quantity has been rarely exceeded, and latterly, 

 the alluvia in some tracts being exhausted, it has begun to 

 decrease. The reign of the Emperor Nicholas has, however, 

 been distinguished by the important discovery, that portions 

 of the great eastern regions of Siberia are highly auriferous, 

 viz., in the governments of Tomsk and Yeniseik, where low 

 ridges, similarly constructed to those on the eastern, flank of 

 the Ural, and like them trending from north to south, appear 

 as offsets from the great east and west chain of the Altai, 



