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longing to Messrs. Golubdow and Kusnezow, produced 81 pouds 191 lbs. of the much-coveted metal; in the year 1843 the mine of Olginsk, belonging to Lieutenant Malewinsky, yielded 82 pouds 37 lbs. ; and in 1844, the labor of 1014 workmen, employed in the mine of Kresdowosdwishensk, belonging to Messrs. Kusnezow and Schtschegolow, produced no less than 87 pouds 14 lbs. of gold. But even Kresdowosdwishensk has been distanced by the mine of Spasky, situated near the sources of the Peskin, which, in the year 1842, yielded its fortunate possessor, the above-mentioned Counsellor Nikita Maesnikow (one of the few men who were already extremely rich before the Siberian auriferous deposits were discovered), the enormous quantity of 100 pouds. of gold! From 1840 to 1845, Maesnikow extracted from this mine no less than 348 pouds 6 lbs. of gold, worth 4,135,174 silver roubles, or about £640,000. Still more recently, in 1860, the Gawrilow mine, belonging to the house of Rjasanow, produced 1024 pouds of pure gold.

But in Siberia, as elsewhere, mining operations are frequently doomed to end in disappointment, particularly if the space destined to be worked in the following summer has not been carefully examined beforehand, as the ore ist often very unequally distributed. A speculator, having discovered a gold-mine, examined four or five samples of the sand, which gave a highly satisfactory result. Delighted with his good-fortune, he made his arrangements on a grand scale, and collected provisions for 500 workmen; but when operations began, it was found that he had, unfortunately, hit upon a small patch of auriferous sand, the vicinity of which was totally void of gold, so that his 500 workmen produced no more than a few pounds of ore, and he lost at least £10,000 by his adventure.

The entire gold produce of East Siberia amounted, in 1845, to 848 pouds 36 lbs., and in 1856 to about 1100 pouds; but latterly, in consequence of the increasing wages and dearness of provisions, which has caused many of the less productive mines to be abandoned, it has somewhat diminished. In 1860, 31,796 men, 919 women, and 8751 horses and oxen, were employed in the Siberian gold-mines.

As may easily be imagined, the discovery of these sources of wealth in the desert has caused a great revolution in the social state of Siberia. The riches so suddenly acquired by a few favorites of fortune, have raised luxury to an unexampled height, and encouraged a senseless prodigality. Some sterlets* having been offered for 300 roubles to a miner suddenly raised from penury to wealth, "Fool!" said the upstart, with the superb mien of a conquering hero, to the fish-dealer, "wilt thou sell me these excellent sterlets so cheap? Here are a thousand roubles; go, and say that thou hast dealt with me!”

The small town of Krasnojarsk, romantically situated on the Jenissei, is the chief seat of the rich miners. Here may be seen the choicest toilettes, the most showy equipages, and champagne (which in Siberia costs at least £1 a bottle) is the daily beverage of the gold aristocracy. Unfortunately, Krasnojarsk had, until very recently, not a single bookseller's shop to boast of; and

* A species of sturgeon highly esteemed by epicures.

while thousands were lavished on vanity and sensual enjoyments, not a rouble was devoted to the improvement of the mind.

Less rich in gold than the province of Jeniseisk, but richer in copper and iron, and above all in platina, is the Ural, where mining industry was first introduced by Peter the Great, in the last years of the seventeenth century, and has since acquired a colossal development. Though gold was discovered in the Uralian province of Permia as early as 1745, yet its production on a large scale is of more modern date. In the year 1816 the whole quantity of gold furnished by the Ural amounted only to 5 pouds 35 lbs., while in 1834 it had increased to 405 pouds.

The discovery of the precious metals on the estates of the large mine-proprietors of the Ural, who already before that time were among the wealthiest men of the empire, has increased their riches to an enormous extent, and given a European celebrity to the names of Jakowlew and Demidoff. Werch Issetsk and Werchne Tagilsk, in the province of Permia, belonging to the Jakowlew· family, have an extent of more than three millions of acres, with a population of 11,000 souls. Besides iron and copper, their chief produce, these estates yielded, in 1834, 58 pouds of gold.

Nishne-Tagilsk, belonging, since 1725, to the Demidoffs, is a still more magnificent possession; for it may truly be said, that perhaps nowhere in the world are greater mineral riches congregated in one spot than here, where, besides vast quantities of iron and copper, the washing of the sands produced, in 1834 no less than 29 pouds of gold, and 113 pouds 3 lbs. of platina. The estate extends over four millions of acres, and its population, in 1834, amounted to 20,000 souls.

The town of Nishne-Tagilsk has about 15,000 inhabitants, and Helmersen ("Travels in the Ural ") praises the Demidoffs for their zeal in carrying the civilization of Europe to the wilds of the Ural. In an excellent elementary school, 150 boys are clothed, fed, and educated at their expense. Those pupils who distinguish themselves by their abilities are then sent to a higher school, such as the Demidoff Lyceum in Jaroslaw, or the University of Moscow, and after the termination of their studies obtain a situation on the estates of the family. The palace of the Demidoffs has a fine collection of paintings by the first Italian masters; but it is seldom if ever inhabited by the proprietors, who prefer Florence and Paris to the Ural. The founder of the family was an eminent gunsmith of the town of Tula, whose abilities gained him the favor of Peter the Great, and the gift of the mines on which the colossal fortune of his descendants has been raised.

CHAPTER XVIII.

MIDDENDORFF'S ADVENTURES IN TAIMURLAND.

For what Purpose was Middendorff's Voyage to Taimurland undertaken ?-Difficulties and Obstacles.— Expedition down the Taimur River to the Polar Sea.-Storm on Taimur Lake.-Loss of the Boat.Middendorff ill and alone in 75° N. Lat.-Saved by a grateful Samoïede.-Climate and Vegetation of Taimurland.

N following the contours of the Siberian coast, we find to the east of Nova Zembla a vast tract of territory projecting towards the Pole, and extending its promontories far into the icy sea. This country-which, from its principal river, may be called Taimurland—is the most northern, and, I need hardly add, the most inhospitable part of the Old World. The last huts of the Russian fishermen are situated about the mouth of the Jenissei, but the whole territory of the Taimur River, and the regions traversed by the lower course of the Chatanga and the Päsina, are completely uninhabited.

Even along the upper course of these two last-named rivers, the population is exceedingly scanty and scattered; and the few Samoïedes who migrate during the summer to the banks of the Taimur, gladly leave them at the approach of winter, the cold of which no thermometer has ever measured. As may easily be imagined, Taimurland has but few attractions for the trader or the furhunter, but for the naturalist it is by no means without interest.

We have seen in a former chapter how Von Baer, prompted by the disinterested love of science, travelled to Nova Zembla to examine the productions of a cold insular summer beyond the 70th degree of latitude. The instructive results of his journey rendered it doubly desirable to obtain information about the effects of summer in a continental climate, situated if possible still farther to the north; and as no region could be better suited to this purpose than the interior of the broad mass of Taimurland, the Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg resolved to send thither a scientific expedition. Fortunately for the success of the undertaking, Von Middendorff, the eminent naturalist, whose offer of service was gladly accepted, was in every respect the right man in the right place; for to the most untiring scientific zeal, and an unwavering determination, he joined a physical strength and a manual dexterity rarely found united with learning. In the Lapland moors he had learned to bivouac for nights together, while chasing the waterfowl, and on foot he was able to tire the best-trained walrus-hunter. He understood how to construct a boat, and to steer it with his own hand, and every beast or bird was doomed that came within reach of his unerring ball. In one word, no traveller ever plunged into the Arctic wilds more independent of baggage, followers, or the means of transport.

On April 4 we find Middendorff, accompanied by Mr. Brandt, a Danish forester, and a single servant, on the ice of the Jenissei between Turuchansk and

Dudino. Here his companions were attacked by measles; but as it was high time to reach the Chatanga before the melting of the snow, the patients were carefully packed up in boxes lined with skins, and the whole party—whose numbers, meanwhile, had been increased by the addition of a topographer and of three Cossacks-emerged from the region of forests on April 13, having to face a cold of -36°, and a storm that almost overturned their sledges. With Tunguse guides they traversed the tundra in a north-easterly direction as far as the Päsina, and thence passing on from one Samoïede horde to another, at length reached Koronnoie Filippowskoi (71° 5' lat.) on the Boganida, an affluent of the Cheta, which is itself a tributary of the Chatanga. Here a halt was made, partly because all the party except Middendorff were by this time attacked with the reigning epidemic, and partly to wait for the Samoïedes, whom they intended to join on their summer migration to the north. During this interval Middendorff made an excursion to the Chatanga, for the purpose of gathering information about the voyage down that river, and to make the necessary preparations. In the village of Chatangsk, however, he found nearly all the inhabitants suffering from the measles; and as no assistance was to be expected from them, he resolved to alter his route, and to proceed as soon as possible to the River Taimur, which would in all probability afford him the best means for penetrating to the extreme confines of continental Asia. As this most northerly river of the Old World lies far beyond the boundaries of arboreal growth, a boat-frame of twelve feet on the keel had to be made at Koronnoie before setting out. Brandt was left behind with part of the company, to make a prolonged series of meteorological observations, and to gather as complete a collection as possible of the animals and plants of the country, while Middendorff started on his adventurous tour (May 19) with sixty-eight reindeer, under the guidance of a few Samoïedes on their progress to the north, and accompanied only by the topographer, an interpreter, and two Cossacks. The difficulties of this journey, since a boat-frame, fuel, provisions, physical instruments, apparatuses for the preservation of objects of natural history, forming altogether a load for many sledges, had to be transported along with the travellers, would have been great at all times, but were now considerably increased by the epidemic having also seized the tribe of Samoïedes which Middendorff expected to find near the small River Nowaia, and which was to guide him farther on to the Taimur. At length, after a search of three days, he found the remnant of the horde, which had been decimated and reduced to a deplorable condition by the epidemic. In vain he sought for the well-known faces of the chief personages of the horde, with whom he had negotiated on the Boganida-" they were all dead." Of thirty-five persons, one only was completely healthy; a second could hardly crawl about; but the others lay prostrate in their tents, coughing and groaning under their skin coverings. Leaving seven corpses on the road, they had advanced by slow journeys to join Middendorff, until they broke down, so that instead of receiving aid at their hands, he was now obliged to help them in their distress—an assistance which they amply repaid, as we shall see in the sequel.

Unfortunately the illness. had prevented the Samoïede women from sewing together, as they had promised, the skins that were necessary to complete the

covering of the travellers' tent, so that they had much to suffer during a violent snow-storm, which raged from May 27 to 30. Thus after another long delay and an irreparable loss of time, considering the extreme shortness of the summer, Middendorff was not able to start from the Nowaia before May 31. The softening of the snow rendered the advance of the sledges extremely difficult, so that it was not before June 14 that he reached the Taimur at a considerable distance above the point where the river discharges its waters into the lake. Encamping on a steep declivity of its bank, Middendorff now set about building his boat. On June 30 the ice on the river began to break up, and on July 5 the navigation of the stream was free. By the light of the midnight sun the boat was launched, and christened "The Tundra," to commemorate the difficulties of its construction in the deserts of 74° N. lat. Constant north winds retarded the voyage down the river and over the lake, beyond which the Taimur, traversing a hilly country, is inclosed within steep and picturesque rocks. The increasing rapidity of the stream now favored the travellers, and the storms were less troublesome between the mighty rock-walls; but unfortunately Middendorff, instead of being able, as he had expected, to fill his nets with fish as he advanced, and to establish dépôts for his return journey, found himself obliged to consume the provisions he had taken with him in the boat. On August 6 the first night-frost took place, and from that time was regularly repeated. Yet in spite of these warnings, Middendorff continued his journey down the river, and reached the sea on August 24, in 76° N. lat. But now it was high time to return.

"The fear of leaving my undertaking half unfinished," says Middendorff, “had hitherto encouraged me to persevere. The great distance from any human habitation, the rapid stream, against which we had now to contend, and the advanced season, with its approaching dark nights and frosts, made our return an imperative necessity, and I could have but little reliance on our remaining strength. The insufficient food and the fatigues of our journey, often prolonged to extreme exhaustion, had reduced our vigor, and we all began to feel the effects of our frequent wading through cold water, when, as often happened, our boat had grounded upon a shallow, or when the flat mud-banks of the river gave us no other alternative for reaching the dry land. It was now also the second month since we had not slept under a tent, having all the time passed the nights behind a screen erected on the oars of the boat, as a shelter against the wind. Provided with a good load of drift-wood, collected on the shore of the Polar Ocean, we began our return voyage on August 26. The borders of the river were already incrusted with ice. Wading became extremely irksome, the river having meanwhile fallen above six feet, and the shallows frequently forcing us to step into the water and pull the boat along.

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"Fortunately the wind remained favorable, and thus by rowing to the utmost of our strength, and with the assistance of the broad sails of our Tundra,' we surmounted two rapids which, encased between abrupt rocks, seemed to defy our utmost efforts.

"On the 31st, a malicious gust of wind, bursting out of a narrow gorge, threw our boat against the rocks and broke the rudder. The frost and wet,

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