Gold Produce of Siberia. 341 



which separates Siberia from China ; and here, it is curious 

 to remark, that a very few years ago, this distant region did 

 not afford a third part of the gold which the Ural produced, 

 but by recent researches, an augmentation so rapid and 

 extraordinary has taken place, that, in 1843, the eastern 

 Siberian tract yielded considerably upwards of two millions 

 and a quarter sterling, raising the total gold produce of the 

 Russian Empire to near three millions sterling ! ! 



" Now, if this great increment be sustained during a 

 certain number of years, there can be no doubt that it will, 

 to some considerable extent, reduce the standard value, and 

 lead to considerable change in our social relations. The 

 first question, therefore, is. To what extent is it likely to be 

 sustained \ Gold alluvia being but the detritus of veins 

 which once existed in the adjacent rocks, it might be supposed 

 that, in piercing these rocks, the miner would find more copi- 

 ous stores of the metal. Experience, however, has taught 

 us, that such is not the fact, and, to whatever cause due, it is 

 certain, that the veins which rise from great depths in the 

 earth are richly auriferous towards their upper limit only. 

 Hence it is, that nearly the whole of the ancient surface of 

 rocks having undergone denudation and consequent destruc- 

 tion, the greater quantities of gold are found in the detritus 

 on the flanks of the hills, or in the valleys between them. 

 So long, therefore, as these alluvia are unexhausted, so long 

 may the miner extract from them, by a cheap and easy method 

 of macerating and washing, the ore which would be obtained 

 at a much greater cost from the solid rock. Now, those 

 alluvia having well defined bottoms, and being of measurable 

 extent, may certainly be exhausted ; and the disappearance 

 of gold from all those civilized countries, in whose early days 

 it was abundantly found (even in our own isles), is a proof 

 that such must sooner or later be the case. But how long 

 is it before this period of exhaustion will arrive ? "When we 

 reflect upon the length of time which the one region of Brazil 

 has continued, I believe with undiminished quantity, to supply 

 modern Europe with its great mass of gold, the opening out 

 of a new El Dorado should teach us to be very cautious in 

 attempting to limit the auriferous capacity of the vast and 



