32 The Hon. Mr. Strangways on the Geology of Russia. 



The forest of Mourom* is a tract of more than fifty versts in length, which 

 stretches along the right bank of the Oca above Mourom : its sandy soil and 

 gloomy appearance resemble more the forests of Carelia, than those of the 

 central governments in general. At the depth of sixty feet below the surface 

 is found a series of beds of ironstone of variable quality ; some of the beds are 

 dark red and argillaceous ; others are mere layers of large concretions, the 

 outer crust of which is an argillaceous rusty earth, while the centre is solid, 

 and of an ash-grey colour : there are also regular strata of pale yellowish- 

 brown coloured ironstone, which is the ore principally worked. Of the two 

 latter varieties, the lightest coloured ores produce the most iron. The mines, 

 if they may be so called, are in several parts of the forest ; the principal 

 about two or three versts from the ferry over the Oca, on the road from Vixa 

 to Mourom. Here the whole surface of the ground appears as if covered by 

 large mole-hills : they are the heaps with which the old pits are covered up. 

 The present system of working is, to sink a shaft, as if for a well, till it meets 

 the bed of ore, and to raise what lies within the circumference, and perhaps a 

 little more all round, and then to close the shaft, and sink another as near to 

 the old one as convenient. In this manner the whole ground is perforated with 

 small holes as near together as they can be placed: no gallery is driven, and all 

 the ore is got out by a shaft immediately above the spot where it lies. The 

 reasons given for this apparently expensive mode of working are, that the ore 

 lying so near the surface, it is little more expensive to arrive at it through a soft 

 bed of sand, in which it is easy to sink shafts, than to drive galleries, for 

 which much timber and machinery might be necessary; since the sand, from 

 its loose texture, would require a vast structure below to support it : yet there 

 is a superabundance of timber in the immediate neighbourhood. 



* The history of the foundation and progress of the iron works at Vixa is not devoid of interest. 

 About fifty years since, the present owner, who with his brother had been engaged in the iron 

 works at Toula, and who possessed a certain knowledge of this part of the country, imagined 

 that the ironstone of the government of Toula was likely to extend into the Forest of Mourom. 

 lie followed therefore the course of -the Oca; and finding pieces of iron ore on the banks of the 

 river, was induced to try whether it existed in situ in the neighbourhood. He actually found 

 rhat its strata were at an inconsiderable depth below the surface on the right bank. This was 

 in the Forest of Mourom, then almost uninhabited, except by banditti, which were then in 

 suflicieat force io oblige him to take an escort of Cossacks in the researches which he made for ore. 

 Bfing satisfied of the quality of what he found, he bought, at an extremely low rate, a vast 

 parcel of the forest, then Crown land ; and he now possesses, in the midst of the barren wilder- 

 ness, — besides a large country-house, with English and Italian gardens, a theatre, a bazaar, and 

 a market, — eleven separate iron works, at from four to twenty versts distance, handsome 

 churches, villages, and 30,000 inhabitants^ as his share in the adventure. 



