MINING AND MANUFACTUEES. 465 



a more frequent survey, besides ^vllich each village has its own customs and 

 special development. Even in the same district some communes will redistribute 

 the land yearly, while in others the term varies from two years to a whole 

 generation.* As a rule, the richer and more prosperous the commune, the less 

 frequent are the redistributions. 



In order to insure equality there is usually a threefold classification of the 

 land according to the quality of its soil, its aspect, inclination, proximity to 

 dwellings, roads, or streams, and even then the parcels are awarded by lot. 



Mining and Manufactures. 



Mining operations, formerly so important, and at no epoch completely aban- 

 doned, have acquired great development in the present century. A gilded 

 pyramid at the St. Petersburg/ Exhibition of 1870, representing the quantity of 

 gold extracted from the Urals, mainly since 1816, weighed 1,610,000 lbs., and was 

 valued at £102,000,000. The minerals, including, besides gold and platinum, iron, 

 malachite, and precious stones, are confined chiefly to both sloj)es of the Urals, 

 while the most copious naphtha springs occur at the two extremities of the Caucasus, 

 and argentiferous lead ores and coal in the Altaï and Transbaikal regions of 

 Central Asia. Of all these treasures the most important are iron, coal, and salt, 

 which exist in almost inexhaustible quantities, though still comparatively little 

 utilised. Russia still imports most of her coal from England, and much of her 

 salt from Gralicia. 



The chief manufactures do not employ raw materials of home production, and 

 are still unable to compete with those of the West in quantity or quality. Cotton 

 spinning and weaving, although representing one-third of all manufactured goods, 

 occupy the fifth place only after Great Britain, the United States, France, and 

 Germany, and are centred chiefly in the Moscow, Vladimir, Kostroma, and 

 St. Petersburg districts. Wool, the next in importance, has its chief centre also 

 in the Upper Volga and Oka basins, though Poland, Livonia, Grodno, Chernigov, 

 Little Russia, the Don and Middle Volga basins, are also engaged in this industry, 

 which employs over 100,000 hands altogether. Cotton and wool have thus 

 replaced the old national linen industry, which stood first till 1830, and formerly 

 exported largely to the West, and even to America. The raw material (flax and 

 hemp) is now mostly exported, although the local demand for linens is still largely 

 supplied from the looms of the Upper Volga, Kostroma, Yaroslav, and Vladimir» 



Leather has always been one of the chief Russian industries, and the birch 

 bark employed by the Russian tanners has the advantage of imparting to their 

 wares a much-prized odour. Yet, although the local supply of hides and skins 

 exceeds that of other European countries, the quantity of the manufactured article 

 is less. Most of the tanneries are small, numbering in 1872 nearly 13,000, and 

 producing over 10,000,000 dressed skins. A greater impulse has been given to 



* In the government of Saratov 128 villages redistribute annually, 22 every 2, 13 every 3, 21 every 

 5, 20 every 6, 2 every 8, 32 every 10 years; in 32 there has been no division since 1858 ; in 23 none since 

 1862 ; and in one division has been theoretically abolished. 



