]68 >lBKIiIA. 



ihe upper courses cil the liveis lalliii;,' into tlir- liver Aljacan, hikI liujii iIk- Maiii.">k uiine on 

 the Yenisei at the villa^'e nl t)/iiaclieiuiyi. In 1^71 liie Spassli copjier snieltiiif^ woiks were 

 eieclfMJ (III iIk; liver I'cfiiits. 'J'lieso woiks sineltctl die liui/i the Maiiisk ami several other 

 mines. Tliey as lar as is kiKtwii, only wmked between JW79 and 18H1 and alt^l^'etller smelted 

 about l,2r)0 ponds (d' copper. 



Deposits fd' argentii(!roiis f:5alena are kiniuii in tii<! ^/uvcihiih'IiI <>[ Yakutsk at several 

 points alon;,' llie Viiiiu and (Indyliahi. iln- iiitmlary (d tlie river Yaiia. In j^50 the latter de- 

 posit was exploreil, lint it, was Idiiiid iniMiilaljle loi exphdtalion owing to its di.stance from 

 populated localities and to ilie scaicily (d lorests. In all probaTiility this was also the reason why 

 the exploitatiiiii nl' the IJndybalsk mine, which was carried on liuni ITO.'j to 1775, was after- 

 wards stopped. Tiiere is another deposit in the Yakutsk province, on tin; river Batoma. a right 

 ribulary id the Lena, wlujre it is said the native Y'akiils smelt lead ami silver. 



Humours of the occurrence of silver ores in the present Amour Govenfii-Cjeneralship, 

 at Daouria on the banks of the Shilku and Argouna, reached Moscow during the reign of 

 Peter the Groat, and induced this monarch to dispatch a party of Greek miners to Siberia 

 under the direction id one Levandian, who in 1698, guided by the discovery of remains of 

 Chud workings on the Koultouchnaya mountain 16 versts distance from Argouna, dis- 

 covered a deposit of argentiferous lead ore in this locality and began to exploit it. in 1704 

 silver smelting works, called the Nerchinsk, was erecteil by order of Peter I. At that 

 time the whole id' this portion of the Transbaikalia, which subsequently comprised the Nerchinsk 

 mining region, was a perfectly wild country only inhabited by nomad natives. To introduce a 

 regular mining Industry into this region, it was necessary to take measures for the emigration 

 of Russian settlers and to overcome immense difficulties. This explains why at first the min- 

 ing industry in the Nerchinsk region developed very slowly. But the production of silver 

 began to increase considerably with the opening out of new mines ami with the growth of the 

 population in the region. 



The introduction of smelting by private Siberians also had a beneficial effect. The 

 maximum i)roducUoii of silver was, during the period 1763 to 1786, when it attained 629'/2 

 pouds. In 179U the yield of silver fell to 219 pouds, it subsequently periodically fluctuated, 

 and in 1847 it even fell below 200 pouds. From that time the production of silver in the 

 Nerchinsk region declined completely, and from 6472 pouds smelted in 1850 it fell to 7V2 pouds 

 in 1863, and then it temporarily ceased altogether. The reasons of this fall in the silver pro- 

 duction of the Nerchinsk region were the flooding of the mines, the economic revolution pro- 

 duced by the abolition of the serfs and of the obligatory labour at the works, and chiefly the 

 revolution which took place in the management of the Nerchinsk works, with the opening of 

 new and richer gold workings, when all the force and means of the region were directed to 

 the extraction of gold, which became the chief object of production instead of silver and 

 lead. Thus there is no fofindation for speaking of the exhaustion of the deposits of silver ore 

 in the Nerchinsk region, and there is reason for supposing that the production of silver might 

 revive with fresh energy, if the economic conditions of the region were improved. As regards 

 the deposits of silver ores, it can only be said that as many as 90 different mines have been 

 opened out in the Nerchinsk region, that vein deposits predominate in the south-western. 



