Gold Produce of Siberia. 34S 



terprising medallist, Adolph Erman, that palseozoic, eruptive, 

 and metamorphic rocks, similar to those of the Altai and 

 the Ural, extend even to the Alden mountains,* not far from 

 the shores opposite Kamtschatka ; and if so, why 6iay they 

 not contain the same minerals ? Again, we are told by Hel- 

 mersen and others, that some of the southern offsets from 

 the Altai, which extend into China, are auriferous ; and one 

 of them, the Tar-Bagatai, the northern part of which is in 

 the Russian territory, has already proved highly productive. 

 The last fact is of very great importance ; for the Celestial 

 Empire, which has only just now been partially opened out 

 to European enterprize, may very probably (and I have strong 

 reasons to think that the same classes of rock extend through 

 Chinese Tartary) prove to be another golden region like 

 Siberia. Even in our own Hindostan, auriferous veins and 

 deposits, as yet, it is true, of no great value, are known at 

 various points from north and south, and have recently met 

 with a good describer in Lieutenant Newbold, who strongly 

 urges their further and more scientific exploration ; t whilst 

 we have yet to learn, whether, in the progress of civilization, 

 the gold tracts of South Carolina may not afford consider- 

 able additions to the metallic wealth of the New World. 



" But, reverting to Northern Asia, how are we to limit 

 our anticipations of the augmentation of such produce, when 

 it is a fact, that within the last few years only, a tenth por- 

 tion of the earth's surfjice (Chinese Tartary and Siberia) 

 has been, for the first time, made known to us as in many 

 parts auriferous, and when from one portion of it only 

 Europe is already supplied with so very large an amount of 

 her chief circulating medium 1 Well, therefore, may political 

 economists now beg for knowledge at the hands of the phy- 



M. Adolph Erman has made the bold effort to colour geologically 

 large portions of Siberia, and the whole of Kamtschatka, under the title 

 of *' Geognostische Skizze von Nord Asien." — {Archiv fur Russland. 

 Berlin, vol. ii.) The more recent travels of M. Middendorf shew the 

 extension of the same eruptive and metamorphosed palasozoic rocks 

 from Nertchinsk to the Stanovi mountains, and to the Shantar Isles m 

 the sea of Okhotsk. — See Sir R. I. Murchison's Anniversary Address to 

 the Royal Geographical Society-, May 1845. 



t Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1843, p. 203. 



