164 SIBERIA. 



by assay. Tin- iiutal i> loiwanl'-il to lli'! St. I't'l'iobuig Mint, and \h<: unld m.-irhaiits ai' 

 given bills by wbiili tlM-y (jbtaiii .yoliJ oj silvm c<)iti or gold ingots. 



Silver, lead and copper. 



Sibi'iia was on«;i; iiiliabited by a piioplo, who according lu tli'^ Ilussian legends, were t-alled 

 C h II il (woiidt'f men). It is iiol known wlien this people livi'd, but the chief monuments of their 

 fniMicr oxistcncc are ancient mines, chieliy wiiii uprn diggings, only in rare instances, iindi-i- 

 gioiind workings. The antiquity of these works is seen from the fact that all the instrnnifiii^ 

 which have bei-n found in them are made either of copper or hard stone, which leads to tlf 

 supposition that this people was entiiviy iiinUMjiiiiinti'il with lion. The Cluid niiiu's, as these 

 ancient workings are called, guided the Ilussian jjioneers in their search lor metallifi-rous 

 deposits, and at first, all the workings were begun in those localities where the Chnd had 

 formerly extracted their silver, lead or copper. 



In "Western Siberia the numerous remains id' Clmd iiiiiies luiind on the Altai and it> 

 very name of caltai* which means the <>gold mountaiiis> inilicate their richness in met- 

 als. The first efforts made by the Russians to exploit these riches belong to the close of the 

 XYIII centuiy but, strictly speaking, the mining industry of the Altai was placed upon a firm 

 footing at the beginning of the XVIII century by Akinfia Demidov the son of the Tula 

 blacksmith Nikita Demidov (Antoufiev). In 1723 some Russian hunters found the remains of 

 ancient scoria in the old waste heaps of Chud workings, near lake Kolyvan in the Biisk 

 region, and mentioned this fact tit Demidov. The ore deposits discovered in this locality 

 proved to be particularly rich in copper and hence Demidov founded the first cojiper 

 smelting works in the Altai, as early as 1726. He called these works the Kolyvano A'oskre- 

 sensk works. In 1739 he erected the Barnaoulsk works, which subsequently, in 1771, 

 became the town of Barnaoul and became the administrative centre of all the works of the 

 Altai region. In 1744 Demidov erected a third work in the present Semipalatinsk province 

 on the borders of the Altai region. 



In 1735 Demidov discovered the Zmeinogorodsk mine, but it was left unnoticed as the 

 amount of copper in it proved inconsiderable. Soon afterwards however, namely in 1742, 

 rich argentiferous lead ores were found in the Zmein mountains, from wluch Demidov in 

 1744 and 1745 obtained 2 pouds 25\'4 pounds of silver. Subsequently, by an Imperial ukaz of 

 the 15th May, 1747, all the mines and works of the Altai passed into the hands of His 

 Majesty's Cabinet. 



From that time the mining industry of the Altai made rapid progress. The discovery 

 and laying out of new mines continued to the close of the XYIII century. The following 

 were the chief of these Diines: the Cherepanovsk in 1781, the Salairsk in 1781, the Riddersk 

 in 1784, and the extremely rich Zyiianovsk mine in 1791. The following works were 

 erected by the Cabinet : the Pavlovsk in 1763, the Souzounsk in 1764, the Tomsk in 1770, 

 the Loktevsk in 1771, the Aleisk in 1774, and the Ekateriuinsk, afterwards called the Gav- 

 rilovsk, in 1793. Two more works were erected in the present century, the Zmeevsk in 13<>4, 



