roo 



RUSSIA. 



The following table, corresponding with the 

 above, shows the development of the import 

 commerce during the same period : 



The following table shows the extent of the 

 commerce in 1881 with each of the principal 

 foreign countries: 



The gold-mining industry, which produces 

 about 40,000,000 rubles a year, is believed to 

 be capable of great improvement. Alluvial 

 mines in the Altai mountains produced 6,739,- 

 325 rubles of gold in 1883. It was formerly 

 necessary to import the sulphur from abroad, 

 but rich sulphur-mines have been discovered 

 on Lake Baskunjak, and near Kazan. Valu- 

 able zinc-mines have been found near Khod- 

 jent, in Turkistan. The notion that the gold 

 production of Russia is diminishing is contrary 

 to the facts. The aggregate product of the 

 crown works for fifty years, from the time of 

 the introduction of quartz-mining down to 1869, 

 was 84,960 kilogrammes, of the value of 100,- 

 000,000 rubles, of which the cost of working 

 was 56,000,000 rubles, leaving a net profit of 

 44,000,000. In the private works 146,912 ki- 

 logrammes were taken out, yielding 23,000,000 

 rubles in royalties to the Government, and 78,- 

 000,000 rubles in net profits to the private 

 owners. The production has steadily increased, 

 particularly since the transfer of Government 



works to private individuals. In 1868 the 

 number of mines and diggings in Siberia was 

 993, the number of persons employed 56,260, 

 the output 26,376 kilogrammes. In 1877 the 

 quantity got out was 39,000 kilogrammes, and 

 the number of persons employed 66,127. The 

 mining industry in the Altai is on the decline, 

 although the deposits of gold and argentiferous 

 lead-ore are as far from being exhausted as 

 they are in the Ural. In the course of the hun- 

 dred years from 1745 to 1845 there were mined 

 1,232,000 kilogrammes of silver, and 34,856 of 

 gold, of the total value of 138,000,000 rubles. 

 Now most of the mines are flooded with water, 

 and the mining authorities recoil from the ex- 

 pense of placing them again in working order. 

 The platinum product of the Ural is compara- 

 tively small, amounting in the year 1876 to 

 1,550 kilogrammes. The greater part of the 

 platinum is exported, since the Government 

 gave up minting coins of this metal. Rich sil- 

 ver, lead, and copper mines have been discov- 

 ered in the Kirghiz Steppe, near Bajanaul, but, 

 for the lack of capital and communications, 

 they remain almost entirely un worked. In the 

 iron-furnaces of the Ural the product has in- 

 creased in ten years. About 1870 it already 

 amounted to 220,000,000 kilogrammes, or two 

 thirds of the total product of Russia, valued at 

 50,000,000 rubles. The copper-mines of the 

 Ural are exceedingly productive. The graphite 

 mines of the Sayan mountains are becoming 

 exhausted, and the most valuable deposits have 

 already given out. The demand for this sub- 

 stance is greater since its employment for cru- 

 cibles. Rich beds were discovered near the 

 lower Yenisei, between 1859 and 1862. By 

 the sea-route, discovered by Nordenskiold, the 

 product of the new mines, which has hereto- 

 fore been transported by land through West 

 Siberia to the mouth of the Petchora, can now 

 be conveniently got to market. The product 

 of Siberian furs of the more valuable sorts has 

 greatly declined. The number of ermine-pelts 

 offered at the annual fair at Irbit declined from 

 108,000 in 1850 to 56,000 in I860, and 24,000 

 in 1870. Sable-pelts decreased in like pro- 

 portion from 43,600 to 10,200 and 5,150. Squir- 

 rel-skins, on the other hand, increased from 

 3,490,000 in 1850 to 4,175,000 in 1870. The 

 cause of the decline of the Russian fur-trade 

 is supposed to be the imperfect manner of 

 preparing and coloring the fur. The skins of 

 Siberian water-fowl are exported in large num- 

 bers. Siberia has become the chief source of 

 the ivory-supply. The tusks of the mammoth 

 are twice as heavy as those of the African ele- 

 phant. There have been exhumed altogether 

 about 22,000 mammoth-skeletons. The carved 

 and polished objects in diorite, porphyry, and 

 other metal colored stones, are manufactured 

 at Kolivan in the Altai, and Ekaterinenbnrg 

 in the Ural, where very low wages are paid, 

 but their cost is greatly enhanced by the trans- 

 port in sledges over the Ural mountains. 

 The rock-oil of the Caucasus has already be- 



