Oil the Silver f Gold, and Plalifia, of Russia. 121 



that amount ; but the great mass was of that quality from which 

 a Mexican miner would have turned away, witiiout bestowing on 

 it another thought. 



" I have said before, that some of the silver ores contained 

 gold. I had the satisfaction of informing the mining corps of a 

 discovery of gold, and one which held forth promise of great re- 

 sults, in one of the carbonates of copper from Ekatherineburg. 



"The Mexican silv^er ores are seldom worked, so as to leave any 

 profit, if they contain less than six or seven marcs of silver in the 

 monton of thirty-two cwt. The Russian mining corps complain- 

 ed bitterly that they were unable to obtain more than twelve 

 ounces out of the sixteen ounces contained in the ton weight ; an 

 ore so poor, that no Mexican would ever dream of working it ; 

 and yet these men not only procure a considerable quantity of 

 silver, but obtain it at but little cost ; to be sure, their cheap 

 slave labour, and their immense forests of fuel, are advantages 

 with which no other country can pretend to compete. 

 "The annual produce of silver in the Russias, is estimated at 

 about 1000 pouds of forty pounds each; but what, after all, is 

 this 1000 pouds or 40,000 pounds, to the produce of the Valenciana 

 mine in Mexico, which for many long years produced its millions 

 of dollars annually. 



" Young DemidofF had not yet returned from Italy ; from his 

 relation and agent DanilofF, I met with every attention. His 

 cabinet contained many beautiful specimens of platina, most of 

 which were designed as presents to the crowned heads of Europe. 

 Although some single masses of platina weighed seven or eight 

 pounds, none could be compared to those in the cabinet of the 

 mining corps, one of which weighed about twenty-seven pounds. 

 My own specimens, which were presented to me by Zobolefsky, 

 although weighing 800 grains each, and of which I had been not 

 a little proud, dwindled away in the view of the great rarities 

 lying in profusion in Demidoff's cabinet. Owner of the most 

 celebrated platina deposits, and gold washings, he had had many 

 opportunities, in the course of a few years, of selecting and put- 

 ting aside, not only large massive lumps of gold and platina, but 

 what was yet more interesting ; a great variety of most beauti- 

 ful and perfect crystals of gold. 



"The mass of platina before alluded to, as weighing twenty- 

 seven pounds, was found completely isolated, and at nearly sixty 

 Vol. L— 16 



