SIBERIA— FUR-TRAX)E AND GOLD-DIGGINGS. 



215 



accurate examination of very swampy auriferous grounds that have been dis- 

 covered in the previous year, and where it is less difficult to work in the frozen 

 soil than to contend with the water in summer. A winter-party travels with- 

 out horses, the workmen themselves transporting all that they require on light 

 sledges. They are obliged to break up the obdurate soil with pickaxes, and the 

 sand thus loosened has to be thawed and washed in warm water. After their 

 day's work, they spend the night in huts made of the branches of trees, where 

 they sleep on the hard ground. It requires the iron constitution of a Siberian 

 to bear such hardships, to which many fall a prey, in spite of their vigorous 

 health. 



A gold-deposit having been found, the fortunate discoverer obtains the grant 

 of a lot of ground, 100 sashens (600 feet) broad, and 2500 sashens (or 5 versts) 

 long. Two adjoining lots are never granted to the same person, but a subse- 

 quent purchase or amalgamation is permitted. At first Government was satis- 

 fied with a moderate tax of 15 percent, of the produce; subsequently, however, 

 this was doubled, until within the last few years, when, the gold production 

 having been found to decrease, the primitive impost was returned to, or even 

 reduced to 5 per cent, for the less productive mines. Besides this tax, from f our 

 to eight gold roubles per pound of gold, according to the richness of the dig- 

 gings, have to be paid for police expenses. Only a twelve years' lease is granted, 

 after which the digging reverts to the crown, and a new lease has to be pur- 

 chased. As the severe climate of the Taiga limits the working-time to four 

 months (from May to September), the period of the concession is thus in reality 

 not more than four years. 



The first care of the lessee is, of course, to collect the necessary provisions 

 and working apparatus. The distant steppe of the Kirghese furnishes him 

 with dried or salted meat ; his iron utensils he purchases in the factories of the 

 Ural ; the fairs of Irbit and Nishne-N"ovgorod supply him with every other arti- 

 cle ; and rye-meal and fishes he easily obtains from the Siberian peasants or 

 traders. By water and by land, all these various stores have to be transported 

 in summer to the residence or establishment of the gold-digger on the border 

 of the Taiga. The transport through the Taiga itself takes place during the 

 winter, on sledges, at a very great cost ; and the expense is still more increased 

 if time has been lost through inattention, as then all that may still be wanting 

 has to be conveyed to the spot on the backs of horses. 



Most of the men that are hired for working in the diggings are exiles — the 

 remainder generally free peasants, who have been reduced in their circum- 

 stances by misfortunes or misconduct. The procuring of the necessary work- 

 men is an affair of no small trouble and exj)ense. Before every summer cam- 

 paign the agents of the gold-diggers travel about the country like recruiting- 

 sergeants, and after giving many fair words and some hand-money, they take 

 the passport of the man engaged as a security for his appearance. But although 

 a passport is an indispensable document in Siberia, yet it not seldom happens 

 that the workman finds means to obtain a new one under some other name, 

 and, engaging himself to a new master, defrauds the first of his hand-money. 



It may be easily imagined that, as the workmen only consist of the refuse 



