b o o k haps thefe claims, urged on one fide, and evaded on the o t h e r ,
. will engender perpetual diffenfions, and will not be finally
terminated but by a feries o f obftinate and bloody wars.
Mean while the trade cannot for a confiderable period be
extenfive, which depends upon fuch cafual circumftances as
the coalition and rupture o f rival and neighbouring powers.
The courfe of fubfequent events can alone difcover, whether
the pacification, figned on the 9th o f January, 1784,
will be more permanent than the former treaties ; or whether
the fame caufes will not continue to produce the fame
effetfts. In a word, the Ruffian commerce-in thofe parts can
fcarcely be eftabliihed upon a firm bails, until the emprefs
acquires a fleet in the Black Sea fuperior to that o f her rival.
And perhaps the completion o f this great national obje£t
may be effected by the late acquifition o f Crim Tartary and
the Kuban, rendered highly valuable by an additional extent
o f fea coaft, and the important harbour o f Caffa.
C H A P
C H A P. VI.
Mines o f Ruffia belonging to the crown and to individuals. p
Gold and Jilver.— Copper and iron.— Average profits which
government draws from the mines, founderies, and duties
upon copper and iron.
mines o f the Ruffian empire may be divided into* chap.
-*• I. Thofe which belong to the crown ; and, II. Thofe. VI' ,
which are the property o f individuals.
I. The former comprize all the gold and filver, and a few
copper and iron works.
1. The gold and filver mines are as follow. The moft
antient gold mine in the Ruffian empire is that o f Voetik,
near Olonetz, between the lake Onega and the White Sea.
Its chief produce is a violet pyritical copper ore mixed with
quartz, and containing rich pieces o f gold, but not in fuffi-
cient quantity to defray its charges. From 174 4 to 17 76 ,
this mine yielded only 57 pounds o f gold, and about 9,000
pood* o f copper; and as the expences amounted to^ i 6,000
more than the prdfits, it was negletfted until 17 72 , when it
Was again worked. Since that time it has furnillied annually
about 250 poods o f copper, and about two or three pounds
of gold duft which iswafhed from the mine,befide accidental
pieces that have been found and fent to Peteriburgh as fpeci-
mens, and which may amount to five or fix pounds more.
»,*«•A po? ? — 40 Ruffian n r 36 E n g liih p ou n d s. T h e pound ufed in this ch ap te r is the
uman, w h ich is to the E n g liih as 9 to 10,