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APPENDIX L. 
(GOLD PRODUCE OF SIBERIA.) 
L. 
Gold Produce of Siberia. 
In reference to this subject, which excites so much interest, we reprint an extract from the Anniversary 
Discourse addressed by one of us to the Royal Geographical Society of London in 1844 : — 
“ To this subject I wish to point the attention of statists and geographers, for it has already begun to 
occupy the thoughts of politicians, and may eventually have a very marked influence upon all civilized 
nations, in changing the relative value of gold as a standard. 
“ In Russia, as in the Brazils, the great mass of the metals is derived from local detritus or alluvia 
usually called gold sand, but for which (as far as Russia is concerned) the term of shingle would be much 
more appropriate. With very trifling exceptions, all such auriferous detritus in the Russian empire occur 
on the eastern or Siberian side of the Ural. Slightly known, and near Ekaterinburg only, in the days 
of Pallas, it was not until the reigns of Paul and Alexander, that these gold alluvia were found to extend 
in a certain zone to the north and south of that locality', throughout 5° or 6° of latitude, and that even- 
tually gold was extracted from them to the annual value of about half a million sterling. Notwithstand- 
ing the increased exploration of late years, and many researches in the northern and southern portion of 
the chain, this quantity has been rarely exceeded, and latterly, the alluvia in some tracts being exhausted, 
it has begun to decrease. The reign of the Emperor Nicholas has, however, been distinguished by the 
important discovery, that portions of the great eastern regions of Siberia are highly auriferous, viz. in the 
governments of Tomsk and Yeniseik, where low ridges, similarly constructed to those on the eastern flank 
of the Ural, and like them trending from north to south, appear as offsets from the great east and west 
chain of the Altai which separates Siberia from China. And here it is curious to remark, that a very' few 
years ago this distant region did not afford a third part of the gold which the Ural produced, but by 
recent researches, an augmentation so rapid and extraordinary has taken place, that in the last year the 
eastern Siberian tracts yielded considerably upwards of two millions and a quarter sterling, raising the 
total "'old produce of the Russian empire to near three millions sterling 1 ! 
“ Now if this great increment be sustained during a certain number of years, there can he no doubt, 
that it will to some considerable extent, reduce the standard of value, and lead to considerable change 
in our social relations. The first question therefore is, to what extent is it likely to he sustained ? Gold 
alluvia being but the detritus of veins which once existed in the adjacent rocks, it might be supposed that 
in piercing these rocks the miner would fmd more copious stores of the metal. Experience, however, 
has taught us that such is not the fact, and to whatever cause due, it is certain that the veins which rise 
from great depths in the crust of the earth are richly auriferous towards their upper limit only. Hence 
it is that nearly the whole of the ancient surface of rocks having undergone denudation and consequent 
destruction, the greater quantities of gold are found in the detritus on the flanks of the hills, or in the 
valleys between them. So long, therefore, as these alluvia are unexhausted, so long may the miner ex- 
tract from them, by a cheap and easy method of macerating and washing, the ore which would be obtained 
at much greater cost from the solid rock. Now, those alluvia having well-defined bottoms, and being of 
measurable extent, may certainly be exhausted ; and the disappearance of gold from all those civilized 
countries in whose early days it was abundantly found (even in our own isles), is a proof that such must 
sooner or later he the case. But how long is it before this period of exhaustion will arrive ? When we 
reflect upon the length of time which the one region of Brazil has continued, I believe with undiminished 
quantity, to supply modern Europe with its great mass of gold, the opening out of a new El Dorado 
should teach us to be very cautious in attempting to limit the auriferous capacity of the vast and slightly 
explored regions of Siberia. The north and south counterforts of the great Altai may, in truth, prove to 
