in easy circumstances at Chinchakhodzi, where we
arrived the same afternoon.
All the morning, as we had driven along through
ruined towns and desolate fields, we enjoyed by
contrast a strangely beautiful view of the distant
mountains, their bases being hidden by mist, whilst
their snowy peaks seemed to float on the bosom of
the clouds. This was especially the case with those
on the right, and those on the left at their summits
were also sprinkled with snow. These mountains of
the Ili valley contain numerous minerals, but it is
doubtful whether any, except perhaps coal, are valuable.
Gold is found only in the right affluents of the Ili,
which spring from the syenitic-granite spurs of the
Borokhoro range. When the Russians took possession
of Kuldja they instituted an inquiry into the mining
operations of the natives, and found things in a
condition truly primitive.
Coal has been worked in the valley for more than
half a century, though not used in other parts of
Central Asia. Chinese labourers worked in companies
of 8 on co-operative principles, or Kalmuks in gangs
of 12, hired by Dungan or Taranchi capitalists. They
sought a spot, when possible, where they could sink
a vertical shaft sometimes 300 feet deep, and at the
same time advance thereto by an inclined one, the
former serving to raise the coal, and the other as a
means of communication. Up to the coming of the
Russians the price o f coal at the pit’s mouth was f d.
per cwt., by reason of the cheapness of labour, materials,
and food.*
* One coalmaster stated that the sinking a vertical shaft 300 feet,
and making an inclined adit 400 feet long, cost him about ¿ 8 0 ; the
labour employed being 12 Kalmuks during the winters of 2J years at
wages of “ a penny a day,” or 24s. each per annum, and food, costing
The station at Chinchakhodzi we found in the midst
of an excellent garden, with numbers of standard peach
trees, and a bower of vines with grapes beginning to
turn colour. Here was another fair sister and daughter
of Russia, whose mother, the post-mistress, told us that
it was her son and daughter whom we had seen at the
previous station, and she further informed her guests,
with some satisfaction, that she had another son a
post-master, and a third who held the appointment of
Russian and Chinese interpreter to General Friede,
Governor of Kuldja. But though the happy mother
of five thriving sons and daughters, the good woman
half this sum. For extracting coal he hired 20 labourers on the
same terms, who raised about 8 tons a day, procuring 1,300 tons in 160
working days. Deducting, in addition, cost of mining apparatus, and
one-third of the produce for tax to the Khan, selling the remainder at
§1. per cwt. brought the coalmaster about Io per cent, upon the
capital laid out. The miners’ wages in Kuldja would not delight the
heart of a Northumbrian, for they are often paid in the form of old
clothes; and if the results of their work supply the miners with the
barest necessities, they are content. The approximate annual output
of coal in the neighbourhood of Kuldja, previous to 1873, was from
10,000 to 13,000 tons. • t j
The iron mines were worked also by means of vertical and inclined
shafts, and sometimes galleries were constructed in the deepest parts
for seeking lodes of ore. The ore was roasted and then smelted in
furnaces made of bricks— air being introduced by hand-bellows. For
the preparation of 1 cwt. of iron were required 7 cwt. of ore, and 15
cwt. of c o a l ; the cwt. costing in production 2s. \d., and selling at
Kuldja, in 1873, for 41. 10d. The quality of iron was of the worst, and
the industry generally at a very low ebb. Silver mining would not
appear to have been much better, for Mr. Davidoff reported that a
band of 4 Chinamen extracted in 3 years 6 yambs of silver, thereby
earning for themselves only £3 each. Copper mining under the natives
was still less satisfactory. From a cwt. of ore were received 5 lbs.
to 8 lbs. of black copper, afterwards smelted in crucibles and cast.
The Taranchi sultan, when in power, was wont to order a levy of 100
Kalmuks or Chinese, make them light fires, extract the ore, and
conduct the smelting, for which they received their food, but rarely
any wages. In 1873 copper smelting had been going on 2 or 3 years,
and the production for that period was said to have been about 3 tons.