THE GOLD-SMELTING LABORATORY. 297 



Bodaibo, so that in future a fifth of that amount 

 is all that is looked forward to.^ The mines from 

 which Irkutsk at present draws its chief supply are 

 those of the Lena Company, with an average annual 

 output of 9000 lb., and of the Imperial Cabinet in 

 Transbaikalia, with a yield of 5040 lb. The gold law, 

 until quite recently, was stringent, all gold-dust having 

 under pain of penalty to be sold to the Government. 

 Now, however, this law has been repealed, and the free 

 sale of gold is everywhere legal. 



The process of smelting is an interesting one. I 

 was conducted into a large room having all the 

 appearance of a chemical laboratory. Presently a 

 number of sealed leather bags were brought in con- 

 taining the raw material, and after these had been 

 carefully weighed and opened, the gold was mixed 

 with borax, poured into graphite crucibles, and placed 

 in the furnace for half an hour. The molten metal 

 was then poured into moulds, and the resultant ingots 

 stored in the strong-room prior to their being despatched 

 to St Petersburg. At the time of my visit I. saw in- 

 gots with a total weight of 5400 lb. thus stored. The 

 gold is valued at from 18,000 to 21,000 roubles a pud^ 

 or, roughly, at from £53 to £62 a pound, and after it 

 is weighed and analysed a certificate is issued to the 

 owners, which can be cashed at any state bank. The 

 gold from the Amur is the purest, containing, after 

 smelting, 96 per cent of pure gold, that from the Lena 

 mines showing from 91f to 93|- per cent of pure metal. 



It would be easy to write at length of the many 

 buildings and objects of interest of Irkutsk ; I spent 

 a most instructive morning at the fine technical school, 



^ For the output of Western Siberia there have long been laboratories at 

 Barnaul — the oldest in Siberia — and Tomsk, and recently also one at Kras- 

 noyarsk. 



