140 THE FOREST LANDS OF NORTHERN RUSSIA. 



verted into warm water, by condensing the heated tar and 

 vapour which passed from the boiler. Within the vat this 

 spiral tube formed a tortuous worm ; and again passing out 

 at the opposite bottom of the vessel, to the end of it a long 

 glass bottle was luted, which received the turpentine as it 

 dropped from the tube. One side of the house was filled 

 with the recent cut chips of the fir wood, which had not as 

 yet been put into the boiler ; whilst the other side con- 

 tained those which had come out from it, from which the 

 turpentine had been extracted, and which were now used 

 as fuel to supply the fire. 



' A little after my arrival the distillation was completed, 

 and the boors removed the bottle, which was rudely luted 

 by means of clay, from the tube. Upon examining its 

 contents I found that the under half of it contained water, 

 whilst the upper one contained the empyreumatic oil of 

 turpentine, which, from its less specific gravity, naturally 

 rises towards the surface. In order to separate it from the 

 water, these Russian boors took a very simple method, 

 and, at the same time, one very characteristic of a bar- 

 barous people. The bottle, which was of coarse green glass, 

 had a very minute hole bored in the bottom of it, which 

 was stopt up with a small wooden plug. They removed 

 this plug, and allowed the water gradually to escape, until 

 the turpentine made its appearance at the hole, when they 

 replaced the pin, and poured the turpentine into another 

 bottle for preservation ; which constituted the whole pro- 

 cess. 



' Upon requesting to see the quantity of turpentine 

 which they had made in the course of the day, the old 

 Russian brought from the corner of the house a bottle, 

 which might contain from four to five pounds, if my 

 memory does not mislead me ; and this, as already men- 

 tioned, was entirely procured from the stump and roots 

 which remained after the trunk was cut down, and which 

 could be applied to no other use. 



' Distilling houses, similar to that now described, are to 

 be met with upon the estates of the different noblemen, or 



