510 
COPPER.. 
far as we could penetrate. The mouth or opening 
is extremely large, perhaps the largest in the world, 
being 1,200 feet in diameter, or near three quarters 
of an English mile in circumference ; an immense 
chasm, gradually enlarged to the present size by the 
excavations and frequent downfalls of the rock. 
We descended this chasm by several flights of 
wooden steps, till we arrived at the entrance of the 
first subterraneous gallery ; from whence the de- 
scent is extremely commodious, not by ladders, as 
is usual in mines, but down steps cut in the rock, 
and sloping so gently as to be practicable for horses 
employed in bringing up the ore. The galleries 
are from six to ten feet high, and sufficiently spa- 
cious. The perpendicular depth of the mine from 
the top of the chasm is 1,020 feet, and 720 from 
the entrance into the subterraneous gallery at the 
bottom. The commodious staircase continued till 
we came to a deep pit, to which we descended by 
means of a wooden ladder, and afterwards by an 
iron ladder, loosely suspended along the sides of the 
rock ; stepping from thence to another wooden lad- 
der, we reached the lowest part to which we could 
then arrive, as the deepest pit was full of water. 
Our ascent was long and tedious, and employed near 
four hours before we again issued into day.” 
There are two considerable mines in Siberia, 
which differ entirely in their nature from those we 
have already noticed. They are both situated in the 
Uralian chain of mountains ; one, called the mine 
of Goumechew, is in the central part of the chain. 
