BAENAUL. 395 



behind tliem, the disease disappeared. It was never 

 known among the mountains. 



They crossed the Obi at Bergsk, and proceeding in a 

 southerly direction, reached Barnaul on the morning of 

 the 2d of August. In nine days they had travelled one 

 thousand miles. 



The city of Barnaul was the central point of the 

 mining interests of the Altai. It was the seat of the 

 authorities of the whole region, and the principal loca- 

 tion of its smelting furnaces. The most important pro- 

 duct of the Altai was silver, the yield of which wa.i 

 greater there than in any other part of the continent. 

 For fifty years before Humboldt's visit it amounted to 

 two hundred thousand dollars annually. The annual 

 yield of the mines during the same time was five hun- 

 dred thousand pounds of copper, and eight hundred 

 thousand pounds of lead. Notwithstanding the quan- 

 tity of silver produced by the Altai, the ore from 

 which it was obtained was very poor ; its average was 

 only four per cent., while the average of the silver 

 ores of Mexico was from eighteen to twenty-five per 

 cent. 



Though the working of the Altai mines was more 

 recent than that of the Ural, the former were undoubt- 

 edly known from the earliest antiquity, for the remains 

 of ancient mining operations were plentiful among them. 

 These remains were generally ascribed to the Tchudcs ; 

 but who the Tchudcs were, and at what period they 

 lived was a mystery which no one cared to inquire into. 

 It was enough to know that they had left the mines 

 behind them. The actual working of the mines of the 

 Altai owed its existence to Akimfitsch Nitikas Demi 



