METALLURGY. 83 



tug up the Volga from the mouth of the Kama, a little 

 below Kazan. Railways cannot compete with them. 1500 

 versts for 15 kopecs the pood ! 



' I am sorry I don't know exactly the total amount of 

 metal sent annually from the Ural ; but I have been told 

 that the firms of Steinbak, Demidoff, Stroganoff, Druz- 

 hinine, Gubine, and others, deliver in Nijni from 300,000 

 to 500,000 poods each ; but I believe if those mines were in 

 the hands of English puddlers they would turn out as 

 many tons as the Russians now do poods.' 



At Nijni Tagilsk, or lower Tagilsk, near to the fort, 

 on the eastern slope of the Urals, are famous mines and 

 works belonging to Demidoff. They were visited by Dr 

 Lansdell, who tells : 



' There had been a fire in the town on the night pre- 

 ceding our arrival ; and in seven hours seventy-eight 

 bouses had been burnt. Pieces of smoking wood were 

 still flying about. The common people attributed the fire 

 to incendiaries, such as escaped prisoners, who hoped to 

 profit by the turmoil, and find an occasion for plunder ; 

 but more thoughtful people traced it to accidental causes. 

 Demidoff's workmen had been called out at night to assist 

 as firemen, and were in consequence resting. We could 

 not, therefore, see everything in motion, but enough was 

 visible to make it clear that they were carrying on 

 enormous metallurgical operations. One of the remark- 

 able things to be noticed was a surface mine of magnetic 

 iron ore, blasted and dug out in terraces, carted down by 

 horses and taken to the furnace, where the ore proves so 

 rich that it yields 68 per cent, of iron. We also descended 

 a copper mine, the mineral from which yields 5 per cent, 

 of metal. We were dressed for the occasion in top-boots, 

 leather hats, and appropriate blouses and trousers, each 

 carrying a lamp, and thus by ladders we descended one 

 shaft of 600 feet and came up another, the water meanwhile 

 trickling upon us freely. At the bottom of the mine they 

 were erecting an English machine for pumping 80 cubic; 



