212 Miscellanies. 



They came at once upon a stratum of gold-bearing sands of conside- 

 rable extent, where the yield of gold was 100 pouds to 8 zolotniks, 

 (a very great proportion, when it is remembered that sands giving 100 

 pouds to 1£ zolotniks have been before considered well worth explor- 

 ing.) Then other beds were discovered of a yet greater capacity, which 

 terminated in the examination of the whole valley of the Tachkou- 

 Targanka, with the exception of the spot occupied by the buildings 

 necessary for the washings. In the course of 1842 they pushed the 

 works under the foundations of the building. The first attempts were 

 not successful, but they soon came upon a spot of marvellous richness, 

 where the yield was from 50 to 70 zolotniks of gold in one poud of 

 sand. Its extent was however very limited. At last, on the 26th of 

 October, 1842, they found this monstrous mass, weighing 2 pouds, 7 

 phounds, and 92 zolotniks, (36 kil. -020758,) 100-078 lbs. It lay upon 

 the strata of diorite* in the bed of gold sand, at the depth of 4J ar chines 

 from the surface and under the corner of the building. 



The mass in question has already reached St. Petersburgh, and is 

 placed at the museum of the Institute of Mining Engineers. t A dis- 

 covery which is equally worthy of our attention, is that of a bed of 

 gold-bearing sands on the left bank of the same river before the dike, 

 containing a considerable number of masses ; already they have taken 

 thence 52, weighing each from one to seven pounds Russian. 



Note by M. Humboldt. — The largest piece of platina found up to 

 this time at Nijni Tageulsg weighs 20 lbs. (Russian), 34 zolotniks. 

 Piece of gold found at Miask, 10 kil. -119 = 27.002 lbs. Piece of gold 

 found in the United States, Anson County, N. C. 21-70 kil. = 57-939 lbs. 

 Piece found at Rio Hayna, (1502,) and lost in the depths of the sea, 

 (see my critical examination of the geography of the new continent,) 

 14-500 kil. = 38-715 lbs. Wonderful mass of Miask found 1842, 36-020 

 kil. — 100-077 lbs. 



According to a letter from Count Cancrine, Dec. 3, 1842, Siberia to 

 the east of the Ural produced in 1842 the quantity of 479 pouds of 

 gold = 7-846 kilogrammes = 21,058 pounds, and the whole of Russia 

 about 970 pouds == 15-889 kilogrammes = 42,323-63 pounds. 



8. Periclase, a new mineral. — M. Scacchi, professor of mineralogy 

 at Naples, has communicated to the Annales des Mines, through his 



* A variety of trap. 



t According to Kupffer, (Travaux de la commission des mesures et des poids 

 dans l'empire de Russie, 1811, tome 1, p. 331,) 



1 kil. =2 pounds Russian, 42 zolotniks and 40-54 dolei. Then 1 poud = 16 kil., 

 381; 1 pound Rus. = kil. -4095; 1 poud = 40 lbs. Rus. ; 1 lb. Rus. =96 zo- 

 lotniks ; 1 zolotnik = 96 dolei; 1 archine = m 711. 



