Photo by Gilbert H. Grosvenor 



A weai.thy Tatar merchant who has just arrived for the great annual, 



EAIR AT NIZHNI-NOVGOROD 

 Note his tall boots, polished like a mirror, and his small skull-cap, which marks the Tatar 



A Treasure house 



Russia is immensely rich in undevel- 

 oped mineral resources. Billions of tons 

 of coal await the pick and shovel, vast de- 

 posits of iron ore lie ready for the coming 

 of the railroad and blast furnace, and rich 

 oil deposits already have placed Russia 

 second only to the United States in the 

 production of petroleum. The Empire, 

 in fact, is bountifully ^applied with al- 

 most every kind of mineral deposit in the 

 category, from asbestos to zinc. 



The Ural Mountains region seems to be 

 one of Nature's principal treasuries of 

 mineral wealth. Here nearly all of the 

 world's platinum is mined, the annual 

 output ranging around 200,000 ounces. 

 The Ural iron-ore deposits appear to be 

 almost limitless, and already they are pro- 

 ducing four-fifths of all the pig-iron used 

 in Russia. There is a profusion of pre- 

 cious stones ; the diamond, sapphire, em- 

 erald, tourmaline, topaz, and amethyst, 

 as well as garnet, jade, beryl, aquamarine, 



475 



