108 J-OUfiSTlXY IN EASTERN RUSSIA. 



make, at the same time, some for his employer ; but it un- 

 fortunately happens that his own profits are always in his 

 thoughts firstly, while the interests of his employer are 

 secondly and occasionally ;" " The silver key is the only 

 picklock that will open every door in Russia," — yes, 

 but it sometimes requires a very large one of gold ; " The 

 creaking of a wheel may be stopped by well greasing ;" 

 " You can't handle gold dust without some of it sticking 

 to your fingers ;" " If you can't cheat you can't sell, at 

 least you had better not ;" " It is not the wrong you do 

 that condemns you, but the exposure ;" " See that you 

 never have any other witness but yourself." These are 

 not a tithe of what I have heard among them, merchants 

 and chinovnicks alike, but they are enough to show how 

 their barometer stands in matters of honesty. 



' I have already made a passing reference to the timber 

 business, and as wood is to the Ural what coal is to 

 England, let us get back to the forests for a little. 



' I was most intimately acquainted with the chief 

 forester at these works, and as they are of the largest and the 

 most important in the Ural mountains they may stand for 

 a mirror for all the rest; and the reflection wont be a very 

 distorted one in any case. 



' He was a German, and I believe a conscientious, indus- 

 trious man, more especially considering that he was a 

 Russian German, and had been educated and brought up 

 in the country. 



' He laboured to bring the smelting operations of these 

 furnaces into a system, and the felling of timber for char- 

 coal into something like a proportional ratio to the growth 

 of new wood. 



' He lived in these wilds for weeks and months to- 

 gether, and it is no joke to do so amongst bears and 

 wolves, mosquitoes, hornets, and all the rest of them. Let 

 any one try it and he will find a sore trial put upon his 

 coolness, courage, temper, and patience. 



' He was the first to cut through these woodlands proper 



