CHIiSTA, MONGOLIA, AND JAPAN. 103 



the greenstone where, also, the gangue is chiefly quartz, and often existing as a 

 zone, several feet broad, of parallel threads, in the argillaceous rock. 



The mines have been worked several years and a considerable area explored, but 

 like those at Ichinowatari they are very poor — the highest production ever attained 

 being about four tons per month, and at the time of my visit it was only about one 

 and three-quarter tons. 



The processes of separation and smelting are the same as at Ichinowatari. The 

 laborers are furnished, at the expense of the mine, with rice and miso, a vegetable 

 substance used for soup. I have added a schedule of the daily expenses, more as a 

 curiosity, and as illustrating the cost of labor, than for any other reason. 



Daily Expenses of the Yurup Lead Mines. 

 Accountant clerk ...........$ 05 



Head miner ............ 07 



Twenty-five miners, at 5 cts. . . . . . . . . . 1 25 



Eighteen coolies, at 4 cts. ......... 72 



Thirteen women ore dressers and washers, at 2 to 6 cents. ... 45 



Daily consumption of iron ......... 12 



" " steel 04 



" " mats and ropes ....... 06 



Total S2 76 



The working time is eight hours daily. The miners receive tasks, for all work 

 over which they are paid extra. The task when working in the hardest rock, here 

 a greenstone, is ^^ of one foot in five days, per man. In very soft rock five feet 

 in five days, per man. The average is about one and one-half feet. The above 

 measures refer to galleries five feet high and three broad. The miners are required 

 to hew the walls as smoothly, and square the angles as accurately as was the 

 custom in Germany before the use of gunpowder. 



A woman's daily task is to pulverize about 160 pounds of ore. 



One thousand pounds of roughly-sorted ore yields 67 pounds of scJilicJi, from 

 which 45 pounds of metallic lead are obtained. 



The charcoal for smelting is produced in vaulted furnaces, which receive daily 

 64 cubic feet of split wood. 



Both cold and warm chalybeate springs rise in the metamorphic argillite ; the 

 warm one, having the temperature of 46° C, is used in winter for washing the ore. 



At this place we introduced the use of gunpowder in mining — its application to 

 that purpose being entirely unknown throughout Eastern Asia. We met with the 

 same objection here that was used, centuries ago, against its introduction into the 

 German mines, the fear that the mountain wotild faU in. One blast, however, allayed 

 this fear, and the miners adopted it enthusiastically thenceforth. 



September 11th. Leaving Yurup we descended the valley to the sea. At the 

 distance of about one mile from the mines we came again to the volcanic con- 

 glomerate. This formation is here similar in character to that seen between the 

 Japan sea and the mines, but differs from that generally met with along the sea- 

 shore. It has undergone so much alteration that it is often difficult to draw the 

 line between the inclosing mass and the fragments. These latter are of a dark. 



