GOLD. 149 



On compariiig these two tables it is seen that although Eastern Siberia employs only 

 three times as many men as Western Siberia yet its production is nine or ten times as great. 

 This is due to the greater richness of the deposits worked in the former region. Owing to 

 the dearness of provisions and forage, and consequently of labour and horses in Eastern Si- 

 beria, the exploitation of the poorer deposits is impossible with the methods now in use for 

 treating the gold bearing sand. 



When in 1829 the Siberian gold industry was made free to private individuals a 

 great number of enterprising men and large capital found their way to this remote region. 

 The gold miners became rich themselves and aided the development of the region with a 

 generous hand, laying down roads to inaccessible places, establishing a steam navigation 

 along the abundant Siberian rivers, and sacrificing considerable sums to the erection of 

 national institutions, such as schools, churches and every kind of charitable and pious work. 

 The development of the gold industry reflected itself upon the towns of Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk, 

 Irkutsk, Chita, ^Nerchinsk and Blagoveschensk. 



Beyond the 40,000 miners employed at the mines themselves, the Siberian gold in- 

 dustry gives occupation to a considerable population in the transport of goods to the mines 

 and other auxiliary works. Indeed it indirectly aids the development of agriculture in the 

 neighbouring agricultural districts and it presents a profitable market for their produce. 



The extent of the sums acquired by the country from the gold industry is seen from 

 the following example. During the three years 1887 to 1889, the wages of the men employed 

 in the gold mines of the Olekminsk and Vitimsk systems amounted to 6.789,000 roubles, 

 while the cost of the chief objects of consumption at those mines was 12,268,000 roubles. 

 These figures give an excellent idea of how vast an amount of money the gold industry 

 distributes over the entire region and how it supports its population, trade and industry. 



Passing from these general data respecting the Siberian gold industry, its individuci! 

 features according to the systems of the chief Siberian rivers may be considered. 



In the vast basin of the Obi the gold industry has been established: 1. On the steppe 

 land extremity of Siberia in the provinces of Akmolinsk and Semipalatinsk, along the rivers 

 belonging to the system of the left branch of the Obi-Irtysh system of the river Irtysh: 

 2. On the western side of the Kouznets Alatau in the Mariinsk region of the government 

 of Tomsk. 3. In the Altai mining region; 4. On the eastern side of the Kouznets Alataou 

 in the Achinsk region of the government of Yenisei. 



Owing to the difl'erence of the natural conditions in the different gold bearing regions, 

 the modes and processes of extraction also differ. In the steppe region the fiiiniug is 

 exclusively open workings, so that deposits with deep lying strata are not worked owing to the 

 great expense of the timber required for supporting underground minings. Thanks to the warm 

 climate the washing of the sand is carried on from April to October, that is, during about 

 seven months. The workings are surrounded by a nomad Kirghiz and Cossacks population, 

 who work in the mines partly for so much per cubic sageue of earth, and partly at so much 

 per zolotnik of gold extracted, and besides this, they serve as the providers of provisions to 

 the mines. Hence the gold industry in the steppe region is not hampered by great preliminary 

 expenses. Moreover, the wages and living of the ininers is far less in the steppe than 



