1S4 SIIiKlilA. 



Strveral coal .si.'aiu.'s an; known in ihi- Akniolinsk provin<.''i on Ih'; U|)pi;r courses of tho 

 livers Ishim, Sokour ami otliors, which fall into iln; Xoura. The Karaj^andinsk pit, belonging 

 to Messrs. Riazanov, is situated at 2'/) versts to the north-west of Karkaralinsk near the 

 borders of the Akniolinsk and Semipalatinsk provinces. Two coal seams are know, 1 and 2*/i 

 sagenes thick. Both are worked, and have been shown by oxph^ratory workings to extend on 

 both ,siiii;s to the cast and west lor a distance of ]1 and U viMsts. Thus tins deposit is very 

 vast, Tlie coal is a true coal with 8 to 12 per cent of ash and semi-caking coke. In former 

 times the Spassk works, situated at 30 versts distance to the south of tlie pits, smelted their 

 copper to till' aMioiiMt (if 3i),0i;o pouds annually, with this coal. The yield of the Karagandinsk 

 mine has been somewhat considerable during the last 15 years, and in 1^84 it exceeded 

 1,50<),000 i)Ouds of coal. Many coal scams are known in the Pavlodarsk, Karkaralinsk and 

 Semipalatinsk districts, and also in the neighbourhood of the town of Sergiopole. 



In the Pavlodar and Karkaralinsk districts, the Taldykoulsk mine is on the first coal 

 bod discovered in the Kirghiz steppes, in 1838. It is situated at 25 versts to the north-east 

 of the Alexandrovsk works and at about 200 versts from Pavlodar. Exploratory workings were 

 carried out at the beginning of the forties which showed that the deposit extended for a length 

 of one verst and for a width of half a verst. As many as eight coal seams were discovered 

 from 1 to 3'ji feet thick. This coal was used in the smithies and partly in smelting the lead 

 oi-es at the Alexandrovsk works. Altogether 337,000 pouds of coal were extracted from this 

 deposit between 1838 and 1860. The Sarykoulsk coal deposit is sitilated at 12 versts distance 

 to the south-west of the Taldykoulsk pits and 50 versts to the north of Bayan-Aoula. The 

 coal here occurs in a bed 4 feet thick at a depth of 16 feet under the surface. The Maouko- 

 beusk coal mine is situated at a distance of 5 versts from the Sarykoulsk deposit and at 

 20 versts to the north-west of the Alexandrovsk works. The total thickness of the three work- 

 table coal seams is 5 feet. The coal seams have been determined over an area of six square 

 versts. The coal was found by chemical analyses to contain 50.5 per cent of carbon, 42.10 per 

 cent of volatile matter and 1.4 per cent of ash. The coal is black, bitumenous, burns with 

 a long flame but does not coke. It was used for copper smelting. This mine was worked 

 during 1869 and 1870. 



The Xikolsk mine is situated at a distance of 90 to a 100 versts to the north- 

 west of the Alexandrovsk works, near lake Alka-Sor. There are two seams of anthracite 

 2.25 and 6 sagenes thick. They lie between clay slates and limestone. This anthracite was 

 found by analyses to contain 74 per cent of carbon, 14 per cent of volatile matter and 12 

 per cent of ash. It was found by trials made at the copper smelting works, that this coal 

 gives a very powerful heat. The Kysyltavsk mine is situated at a distance of about 70 versts 

 from the Alexandrovsk works and 90 versts from the Bogoslovsk copper and lead smelting 

 works. This is one of the best coal fields known. It includes five seams from 2 to 4 feet 

 thick. The loanna-PredtecIiensk copper smelting works are erected immediately over the mine. 

 The Kysyltavsk coal gives a fairly good coke. In 1873 this mine yielded altogether 2^/2 mil- 

 lion pouds of coal. The Dzhemantouzsk mine is also upon one of the thickest and best coal 

 beds yst found in the Kirghiz steppes. It was discovered in 1864, at 90 versts to the 

 south of the Alexandrovsk works. This mine comprises five coal seams from ''2 to 3 feet 



