﻿392 Prof. Milne — Across Europe and Asia. 



are about twelve miles distant. The mineral here sought is gold. 

 Hitherto in Siberia all workings for gold have been by washing the 

 alluvium, but here operations for the purpose of quartz mining are 

 being carried on in an energetic manner, and at apparently con- 

 siderable expense. From this fact, from the unusual mode in which 

 the deposits occar, and I may add also from the historical associa- 

 tions connected with the Beresovsk mines, it being to these mines 

 that many of the early Siberian exiles were condemned, it will not 

 be out of place for me to relate the little I saw and gleaned during 

 several visits that I paid to them. 



For the privilege of making these visits, and for the kind hospi- 

 tality I received whilst staying there, I have to thank General 

 Astershof, their chief promoter, the resident director and engineer. 

 My first journey to Beresovsk was on September 11th. Owing 

 to the breaking of the axle-tree of our carriage and a fall of 

 snow, we were detained a considerable time upon the road. The 

 greater part of the way is along a wide open clearing through fir 

 woods. Here and there I obtained a view over a wide flattish 

 country, which appeared as if its surface had been overturned and 

 washed at many points. As we neared the village of Bei'esovsk, 

 which gives its name to the mines, I saw several freshly-opened 

 pits and trenches, all indicative of gold-searching operations. The 

 first discovery of this metal was made in the year 1745, when it 

 was found at the same time by two men at places about 80 versts 

 apart. At the outset all the workings were upon quartz reefs ; but 

 in 1823, gold-bearing sand having been discovered, the quartz 

 mining ceased, and the works assumed a new aspect. These 

 alluvial washings no longer yielding a j)rofitable return, the work- 

 ings are now reverting to their old form. On the first day of my 

 visit I was driven over the greater portion of the property, which 

 covers about 56 square versts. This gave me a general topo- 

 graphical idea of the country, which for the most part is a large 

 plain, here and there sweeping upwards to form low mound-like 

 hills. The whole of this is cut into deep trenches for costeaning 

 purposes, which reach through the alluvium down to the subjacent 

 rock. From these trenches, and from various shafts which have 

 been sunk, I think nearly fifty in all, I was very well able to see 

 for myself, and realize the description which had been given to me 

 by the mining engineer in charge, of the circumstances under 

 which the mineral bands occur. The surface soil, which appeared 

 almost everywhere, was of varying thickness. In many places it 

 was very ferruginous, and looked as if it had been formed by the 

 decomposition of the rocks beneath. There were other places 

 where this superficial deposit had a character not unlike that formed 

 in the bed of a river. In this latter, which was the alluvium from 

 which gold was originally washed, and which only occurs in isolated 

 patches, I picked up specimens of white and pink quartz, chalce- 

 dony, hornstone, greenstone, epidosite, green mica, beresite 

 (which I shall again refer to), and also other stones. Beneath these 

 superficial deposits there is a rock not unlike a talcose schist 



