b o o k 2. The next gold mines difcovered in the empire were
. VL , fhnfe near Catharinenburg : the ore is very martial, commonly
of a cubick form in a quartz matrix; and the gold is
extracted by walhing. The annual produce o f pure gold
never exceeded 200 pounds, and was. commonly much lefs;
in 17 7 2 it was only 101 pounds.
3. The moft important iilver mines are thofe o f Koly van,
between the rivers Oby and Irtiih, near the mountains which-
form the frontiers o f Siberia, and feparate that country from
the Chinefe empire, or rather from the territory o f the Cal-
mucs dependent upon the Chinefe. Thefe mines were firft
difcovered in 1728, by Akinfi Nikitich Demidof, and were
for fome years worked by him, for his own private emolument,
as copper mines. It is fufpehed, that he privately
extrailed the nobler metals, but prudently concealed the fe-
cret until 1774; when, in order to prevent its being divulged
by other means, he made the difcovery to the emprefs Elizabeth,
who appropriated them to the crown mi Thefe mines,
fituated near Voikrefenik, and in the Smeyeiltaia Gora, or
Mountain o f Serpents, are known by the general appellation
of Koly van, from a village o f that name upon the rivulet
Bielaia, in the diftriit o f Kufnetfz, where the ore was formerly
fmelted. But as the adjacent country is fcantily provided
with wood, new founderies have been conftruiled at
Barnaul, Novopaulofik, and Sufunfk, to the north eaft of
Kolyvan, in a diftridt abounding with trees t .
Thefe mines, which may juitly be ftyled the Potofi o f the
Ruffians, have produced from 1749 to 176 a from 8,000
to 16,000 pounds of lilver; from 176 3 till 1769 from
20.000 to 32,000; and iince that period to 1778 from
40.000 to 48,000. The lilver contains upwards o f three
* Pallas R e ife . P . I I . p . 582. f Ib id . p . 5 79 .
per
per cent, o f gold, the feparation o f which is made in the im- CI^ P-
perial laboratory within the fortrefs o f Peteriburgh. T h e '— *~
whole produce ever extrailed from the mines amounted, in
1.7,71, to 400,000 pounds o f lilver, with 12 ,720 o f gold;
and finpe 17.7 x we may calculate the annual produce at above
44.000 of lilver,. and about 1200 of gold.
The mines and founderies of, Kolyvan employ nearly
40.000 colonilts, befide the peafants in the dillriits o f
Tomlk and Kufnetz, who, in lieu o f paying the poll-tax in
money, cut wood, make charcoal, and tranfport the ore
to the founderies. The expences, which were formerly
fupplied from the treafury and o f courfe confiderably cli-
miniihed the profit, have, fince the year 176 5 , been ab--
folutely annihilated,, and the whole produce o f the mines
in gold and- lilver is clear profit. In the fame year a. mint
was eftablilhed at the foundery o f Sufunlk, for the coinage
o f the copper fupplied Horn the mines o f Kolyvan,,
the greateft part o f which had been hitherto o f no ufe. Pieces
of one,, two, five* .and ten copees*, are llruck and difperfed.
over Siberia. Of this currency the fum o f £50,000 is
annually coined, which is fufficient for re-imburfing the
poll-tax, paying the miners, tranfporting the ore, pur- -
chafing the lead which muffc be brought from Nerfhinlk,
and defraying the expence of fending the gold and lilver as
far as Tobolfk. The lilver which is fmelted in the above-
mentioned founderies, is conveyed upon large fledges twice
in the year : the firlt convoy fets off in the beginning o f the •
winter, and reaches Peteriburgh a little after Chriftmas; the
fecond in the middle o f winter, and arrives there towards -
fpring,
4
* A final! coin n ea rly equal to
4. The».