siberia.—its immense extent and capabilities.—the exiles.—mentschikoff.—dolgorouky.—münich.—the criminals.—the free siberian peasant.—extremes of heat and cold.—fur-bearing animals.—the sable.—the ermine.—the siberian weasel.—the sea-otter.—the black fox.—the lynx.—the squirrel.—the varying hare.—the suslik.—importance of the fur-trade for the northern provinces of the russian empire.—the gold-diggings of eastern siberia.—the taiga.—expenses and difficulties of searching expeditions.—costs of produce, and enormous profits of successful speculators.—their senseless extravagance.—first discovery of gold in the ural mountains.—jakowlew and demidow.—nishne-tagilsk.
siberia is at least thirty times more extensive than great britain and ireland, but its scanty population forms a miserable contrast to its enormous size. containing scarcely three millions of inhabitants, it is comparatively three hundred times less peopled than the british islands. this small population is, moreover, very unequally distributed, consisting chiefly of russians and tartars, who have settled in the south or in the milder west, along the rivers and the principal thoroughfares which lead from the territory of one large stream to the other. in the northern and eastern districts, as far as they are occupied, the settlements are likewise almost entirely confined to the river-banks; and thus the greater part of the enormous forest-lands, and of the interminable tundras, are either entirely uninhabited by man, or visited only by the huntsman, the gold-digger, or the migratory savage.
and yet siberia has not been so niggardly treated by nature as not to be205 able to sustain a far more considerable population. in the south there are thousands of square miles fit for cultivation; the numbers of the herds and flocks might be increased a hundred-fold, and even the climate would become milder after the labor of man had subdued the chilling influences of the forest and the swamp. but it is easier to express than to realize the wish to see siberia more populous, for its reputation is hardly such as to tempt the free colonists to settle within its limits; and thus the russian government, which would willingly see its more temperate regions covered with flourishing towns and villages, can only expect an increase of population from the slow growth of time, aided by the annual influx of the involuntary emigrants which it sends across the ural to the east.
many a celebrated personage has already been doomed to trace this melancholy path, particularly during the last century, when the all-powerful favorite of one period was not seldom doomed to exile by the next palace revolution. this fate befell, among others, the famous prince mentschikoff. in a covered cart, and in the dress of a peasant, the confidential minister of peter the great, the man who for years had ruled the vast russian empire, was conveyed into perpetual banishment. his dwelling was now a simple hut, and the spade of the laborer replaced the pen of the statesman. domestic misfortunes aggravated his cruel lot. his wife died from the fatigues of the journey; one of his daughters soon after fell a victim to the smallpox; his two other children, who were attacked by the same malady, recovered. he himself died in the year 1729, and was buried near his daughter at beresow, the seat of his exile. like cardinal wolsey, after his fall he remembered god, whom he had forgotten during the swelling tide of his prosperity. he considered his punishment as a blessing, which showed him the way to everlasting happiness. he built a chapel, assisting in its erection with his own hands, and after the services gave instruction to the congregation. the inhabitants of beresow still honor his memory, and revere him as a saint. they were confirmed in this belief by the circumstance that his body, having been disinterred in 1821, was found in a state of perfect preservation, after a lapse of ninety-two years.
one day, as his daughter walked through the village, she was accosted by a peasant from the window of a hut. this peasant was prince dolgorouky, her father’s enemy—the man who had caused his banishment, and was now, in his turn, doomed to taste the bitterness of exile. soon after the princess and her brother were pardoned by the empress anna, and dolgorouky took possession of their hut. young mentschikoff was finally reinstated in all the honors and riches of his father, and from him descends, in a direct line, the famous defender of sebastopol.
marshal münich, the favorite of the empress anna, was doomed, in his sixtieth year, to a siberian exile, when elizabeth ascended the throne. his prison consisted of three rooms—one for his guards or jailers, the second for their kitchen, the third for his own use. a wall twenty feet high prevented him from enjoying the view even of the sky. the man who had once governed russia had but half a rouble daily to spend; but the love of his wife—who,206 although fifty-five years old, had the courage and the self-denial to accompany him in his banishment—alleviated the sorrows of his exile. the venerable couple spent twenty-one years in siberia, and on their return from exile, fifty-two children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, were assembled to meet them at moscow. the revolution which placed catherine the second on the throne had nearly once more doomed the octogenarian statesman to banishment, but he fortunately weathered the storm, and died as governor of st. petersburg.
in this century, also, many an unfortunate exile, guiltless at least of ignoble crimes, has been doomed to wander to siberia. there many a soldier of the grande armée has ended his life; there still lives many a patriotic pole, banished for having loved his country “not wisely but too well;” there also the conspirators who marked with so bloody an episode the accession of nicholas, have had time to reflect on the dangers of plotting against the czar.
most of the siberian exiles are, however, common criminals—such as in our country would be hung or transported, or sentenced to the treadmill: the assassin, the robber—to siberia; the smuggler on the frontier, whose free-trade principles injure the imperial exchequer—to siberia; even the vagabond who is caught roaming, and can give no satisfactory account of his doings and intentions, receives a fresh passport—to siberia.
thus the annual number of the exiles amounts to about 12,000, who, according to the gravity of their offenses, are sent farther and farther eastward. on an average, every week sees a transport of about 300 of these “unfortunates,” as they are termed by popular compassion, pass through tobolsk. about one-sixth are immediately pardoned, and the others sorted. murderers and burglars are sent to the mines of nertschinsk, after having been treated in russia, before they set out on their travels, with fifty lashes of the knout. in former times their nostrils used to be torn off, a barbarity which is now no longer practised.
according to sir george simpson’s “narrative of a journey round the world” (1847), siberia is the best penitentiary in the world. every exile who is not considered bad enough for the mines—those black abysses, at whose entrance, as at that of dante’s hell, all hope must be left behind—receives a piece of land, a hut, a horse, two cows, the necessary agricultural implements, and provisions for a year. the first three years he has no taxes to pay, and, during the following ten, only the half of the usual assessment. thus, if he choose to exert himself, he has every reason to hope for an improvement in his condition, and at the same time fear contributes to keep him in the right path; for he well knows that his first trespass would infallibly conduct him to the mines, a by no means agreeable prospect. under the influence of these stimulants, many an exile attains a degree of prosperity which would have been quite beyond his reach had he remained in european russia.
hofmann gives a less favorable account of the siberian exiles. in his opinion, the prosperity and civilization of the country has no greater obstacle than the mass of criminals sent to swell its population. in the province of tomsk, which seems to be richly stocked with culprits of the worst description, all the207 wagoners belong to this class. they endeavored to excite his compassion by hypocrisy. “it was the will of god!” is their standing phrase, to which they tried to give a greater emphasis by turning up the whites of their eyes. but, in spite of this pious resignation to the divine will, hofmann never met with a worse set of drunkards, liars, and thieves.
86. siberian peasant.
as to the free siberian peasant, who is generally of exile extraction, all travellers are agreed in his praise. “as soon as one crosses the ural,” says wrangell, “one is surprised by the extreme friendliness and good-nature of the inhabitants, as much as by the rich vegetation, the well-cultivated fields, and the excellent state of the roads in the southern part of the government of tobolsk. our luggage could be left without a guard in the open air. ‘ne-boss!’ ‘fear not!’ was the answer when we expressed some apprehension;208 ‘there are no thieves among us.’ this may appear strange, but it must be remembered that the tomsk wagoners, described above, are located far more to the east, and that every exiled criminal has his prescribed circuit, the bounds of which he may not pass without incurring the penalty of being sent to the mines.
according to professor hansteen, the siberian peasants are the finest men of all russia, with constitutions of iron. with a sheepskin over their shirt, and their thin linen trowsers, they bid defiance to a cold of 30° and more. they have nothing of the dirty avarice of the european russian boor; they have as much land as they choose for cultivation, and the soil furnishes all they require for their nourishment and clothing. their cleanliness is exemplary. within the last thirty years the gold-diggings have somewhat spoilt this state of primitive simplicity, yet even hofmann allows that the west-siberian peasant has retained much of the honesty and hospitality for which he was justly celebrated.
besides agriculture, mining, fishing, and hunting, the carriage of merchandise is one of the chief occupations of the siberians, and probably, in proportion to the population, no other country employs so large a number of wagoners and carriers. the enormous masses of copper, lead, iron, and silver produced by the altai and the nertschinsk mountains, have to be conveyed from an immense distance to the russian markets. the gold from the east-siberian diggings is indeed easier to transport, but the provisions required by the thousands of workmen employed during the summer in working the auriferous sands, have to be brought to them, frequently from a distance of many hundred versts.
the millions of furs, from the squirrel to the bear, likewise require considerable means of transport; and, finally, the highly important caravan-trade with china conveys thousands of bales of tea from kiachta to irbit. siberia has indeed many navigable rivers, but a glance at the map shows us at once that they are so situated as to afford far less facilities to commerce than would be the case in a more temperate climate. they all flow northward into an inhospitable sea, which is forever closed to navigation, and are themselves ice-bound during the greater part of the year. enormous distances separate them from each other, and there are no navigable canals to unite them.
on some of the larger rivers steam-boats have indeed been introduced, and railroads are talked of; but there can be no doubt that, for many a year to come, the cart and the sledge will continue to be the chief means of transport in a country which, in consequence of its peculiar geographical position, is even in its more southern parts exposed to all the rigors of an arctic winter.
thus at jakutsk (62° n. lat.), which is situated but six degrees farther to the north than edinburgh (55° 58´), the mean temperature of the coldest month is -40°, and mercury a solid body during one-sixth part of the year; while at irkutsk (52° 16´ n. lat.), situated but little farther to the north than oxford (51° 46´), the thermometer frequently falls to -30°, or even -40°; temperatures which are of course quite unheard of on the banks of the isis. for these dreadful winters in the heart of siberia, and under comparatively low degrees of latitude, there are various causes. the land is, in the first place, an immense209 plain slanting to the north; moreover, it is situated at such a distance from the atlantic, that beyond the ural the western sea-winds, which bring warmth to our winters, assume the character of cold land-winds; and, finally, it merges in the south into the high mongolian plateau, which, situated 4000 feet above the level of the sea, has of course but little warmth to impart to it in winter; so that, from whatever side the wind may blow at that season, it constantly conveys cold. but in summer the scene undergoes a total change. under the influence of the sun circling for months round the north pole, floods of warmth are poured into central siberia, and rapidly cause the thermometer to rise; no neighboring sea refreshes the air with a cooling breeze; whether the wind come from the heated mongolian deserts, or sweep over the siberian plains, it imbibes warmth on every side. thus the terrible winter of jakutsk is followed by an equally immoderate summer (58° 3´), so that rye and barley are able to ripen on a soil which a few feet below the surface is perpetually frozen.
87. irkutsk.
the boundless woods of siberia harbor a number of fur-bearing animals whose skins form one of the chief products of the country. among these persecuted denizens of the forest, the sable (martes zibellina), which closely resembles the pine-marten (martes abietum) in shape and size, deserves to be particularly noticed, both for the beauty of its pelt, and its importance in the fur-trade. sleeping by day, the sable hunts his prey by night; but though he chiefly relishes animal food, such as hares, young birds, mice, and eggs, he also feeds on berries, and the tasteful seeds of the pinus cembra. his favorite abode is near the banks of some river, in holes of the earth, or beneath the roots of trees. incessant persecution has gradually driven him into the most inaccessible forests;210 the days are no more when the tunguse hunter willingly gave for a copper kettle as many sable skins as it would hold, or when the kamchatkan trapper, could easily catch seventy or eighty sables in one winter; but von baer still estimates the annual produce of all siberia at 45,000 skins. the finest are caught in the forests between the lena and the eastern sea, but kamchatka furnishes the greater number. a skin of the finest quality is worth about forty roubles on the spot, and at least twice as much in st. petersburg or moscow, particularly when the hair is long, close, and of a deep blackish-brown, with a thick brown underwool. skins with long dark hair tipped with white are highly esteemed, but still more so those which are entirely black—a color to which the russians give the preference, while the chinese have no objection to reddish tints. in consequence of this difference of taste, the sables from the obi, which are generally larger but of a lighter color, are sent to kiachta, while the darker skins, from eastern siberia, are directed to st. petersburg and leipsic.
the chase of the sable is attended with many hardships and dangers. the skins are in the highest perfection at the commencement of the winter; accordingly, towards the end of october, the hunters assemble in small companies, and proceed along the rivers in boats, or travel in sledges to the place of rendezvous—taking with them provisions for three or four months. in the deep and solitary forest they erect their huts, made of branches of trees, and bank up the snow round them, as a further protection against the piercing wind. they now roam and seek everywhere for the traces of the sable, and lay traps or snares for his destruction. these are generally pitfalls, with loose boards placed over them, baited with fish or flesh; fire-arms or cross-bows are more rarely used, as they damage the skins. the traps must be frequently visited, and even then the hunter often finds that a fox has preceded him, and left but a few worthless remnants of the sable in the snare. or sometimes a snow-storm overtakes him, and then his care must be to save his own life. thus sable-hunting is a continual chain of disappointments and perils, and at the end of the season it is frequently found that the expenses are hardly paid. until now the sable has been but rarely tamed. one kept in the palace of the arch-bishop of tobolsk was so perfectly domesticated, that it was allowed to stroll about the town as it liked. it was an arch-enemy of cats, raising itself furiously on its hind-legs as soon as it saw one, and showing the greatest desire to fight it.
in former times the ermine (mustela erminea) ranked next to the sable as the most valuable fur-bearing animal of the siberian woods; at present the skin is worth no more than from five to eight silver kopeks at tobolsk, so that the whole produce of its chase hardly amounts to 200,000 roubles. this little animal resembles in its general appearance the weasel, but is considerably larger, as it attains a length of from twelve to fourteen inches. its color, which is reddish-brown in summer, becomes milk-white during the winter in the northern regions, with the exception of the tip of the tail, which always remains black. its habits likewise greatly resemble those of the weasel; it is equally alert in all its movements, and equally courageous in defending itself when attacked. it lives on birds, poultry, rats, rabbits, leverets, and all kinds of smaller animals,211 and will not hesitate to attack a prey of much greater size than itself. although various species of ermine are distributed over the whole forest region of the north, yet siberia produces the finest skins. the largest come from the kolyma, or are brought to the fair of ostrownoje by the tchutchi, who obtain them from the coldest regions of america.
the siberian weasel (viverra siberica), which is much smaller than the ermine, is likewise hunted for its soft and perfectly snow-white winter dress—the tip of the tail not being black, as in the latter.
the sea-otter, or kalan (enhydris lutris), the most valuable of all the russian fur-bearing animals, as 110 silver roubles is the average price of a single skin, is nearly related to the weasel tribe. the enormous value set upon the glossy, jet-black, soft, and thick fur of the kalan sufficiently explains how the russian hunters have followed his traces from kamchatka to america, and almost entirely extirpated him on many of the coasts and islands of bering’s sea and the northern pacific, where he formerly abounded. his habits very much resemble those of the seal; he haunts sea-washed rocks, lives mostly in the water, and loves to bask in the sun. his hind feet have a membrane skirting the outside of the exterior toe, like that of a goose, and the elongated form of his flexible body enables him to swim with the greatest celerity. the love of the sea-otters for their young is so great that they reckon their own lives as nothing to protect them from danger; and steller, who had more opportunities than any other naturalist for observing their habits, affirms that, when deprived of their offspring, their grief is so strong that in less than a fortnight they waste away to skeletons. on their flight they carry their young in their mouths, or drive them along before them. if they succeed in reaching the sea, they begin to mock their baffled pursuer, and express their joy by a variety of antics. sometimes they raise themselves upright in the water, rising and falling with the waves, or holding a fore paw over their eyes, as if to look sharply at him; or they throw themselves on their back, rubbing their breast with their fore paws; or cast their young into the water, and catch them again, like a mother playing with her infant. the sea-otter not only surpasses the fish-otter by the beauty of his fur, but also in size, as he attains a length of from three to four feet, exclusive of the tail. his food consists of small fishes, molluscs, and crustaceous animals, whose hard calcareous covering his broad grinders are well adapted to crush.
next to the sea-otter, the black fox, whose skin is of a rich and shining black or deep brown color, with the longer or exterior hairs of a silvery-white, furnishes the most costly of all the siberian furs. the average price of a single skin amounts to 60 or 70 silver roubles, and rich amateurs will willingly pay 300 roubles, or even more, for those of first-rate quality. the skin of the siberian red fox, which ranks next in value, is worth no more than 20 roubles; the steel-gray winter dress of the siberian crossed fox (thus named from the black cross on his shoulders), from 10 to 12 roubles; and that of the arctic fox, though very warm and close, no more than 6 or 8.
the bear family likewise furnishes many skins to the siberian furrier. that of the young brown bear (ursus arctos) is highly esteemed for the trimming212 of pelisses; but that of the older animal has little value, and is used, like that of the polar bear, as a rug or a foot-cloth in sledges.
the lynx is highly prized for its very thick, soft, rust-colored winter dress, striped with darker brown. it attains the size of the wolf, and is distinguished from all other members of the cat tribe, by the pencils of long black hair which tip its erect and pointed ears. it loves to lie in ambush for the passing reindeer or elk, on some thick branch at a considerable distance from the ground. with one prodigious bound it leaps upon the back of its victim, strikes its talons into its flesh, and opens with its sharp teeth the arteries of its neck.
though singly of but little value, as a thousand of its skins are worth no more than one sea-otter, the squirrel plays in reality a far more important part in the siberian fur-trade than any of the before-mentioned animals, as the total value of the gray peltry which it furnishes to trade is at least seven times greater than that of the sable. four millions of gray squirrel skins are, on an average, annually exported to china, from two to three millions to europe, and the home consumption of the russian empire is beyond all doubt still more considerable, as it is the fur most commonly used by the middle classes. the european squirrels are of inferior value, as the hair of their winter dress is still a mixture of red and gray; in the territory of the petschora, the gray first becomes predominant, and increases in beauty on advancing towards the east. the squirrels are caught in snares or traps, or shot with blunted arrows. among the fur-bearing animals of siberia, we have further to notice the varying hare, whose winter dress is entirely white, except the tips of the ears, which are black; the baikal hare; the ground-squirrel, whose fur has fine longitudinal dark-brown stripes, alternating with four light-yellow ones; and the suslik, a species of marmot, whose brown fur, with white spots and stripes, fetches a high price in china. it occurs over all siberia as far as kamchatka. its burrows are frequently nine feet deep; this, however, does not prevent its being dug out by the hunters, who likewise entrap it in spring when it awakes from its winter sleep.
summing together the total amount of the russian fur-trade, von baer estimates the value of the skins annually brought to the market by the russian american fur company at half a million of silver roubles, the produce of european russia at a million and a half, and that of siberia at three millions. as agriculture decreases on advancing to the north, the chase of the fur-bearing animals increases in importance. thus, in the most northern governments of european russia—wjatka, wologda, olonez, and archangel—it is one of the chief occupations of the inhabitants. in olonez about four hundred bears are killed every year, and the immense forests of wologda furnish from one hundred to two hundred black foxes, three hundred bears, and three millions of squirrels.
although the sable and the sea-otter are not so numerous as in former times, yet, upon the whole, the russian fur-trade is in a very flourishing condition; nor is there any fear of its decreasing, as the less valuable skins—such as those of the squirrels and hares, which from their numbers weigh most heavily in the balance of trade—are furnished by rodents, which multiply very rapidly,213 and find an inexhaustible supply of food in the forests and pasture-grounds of siberia.
the chase of the fur-bearing animals affords the north-siberian nomads—such as the ostiaks, jakuts, tungusi, and samoïedes—the only means of procuring the foreign articles they require; hence it taxes all their ingenuity, and takes up a great deal of their time. on the river-banks and in the forests they lay innumerable snares and traps, all so nicely adapted to the size, strength, and peculiar habits of the various creatures they are intended to capture, that it would be almost impossible to improve them. an industrious jakut will lay about five hundred various traps as soon as the first snow has fallen; these he visits about five or six times in the course of the winter, and generally finds some animal or other in every eighth or tenth snare.
the produce of his chase he brings to the nearest fair, where the tax-gatherer is waiting for the jassak, which is now generally paid in money (five paper roubles = four shillings). with the remainder of his gains he purchases iron kettles, red cloth for hemming his garments, powder and shot, rye-meal, glass pearls, tobacco, and brandy—which, though forbidden to be sold publicly, is richly supplied to him in private—and then retires to his native wilds. from the smaller fairs, the furs are sent by the russian merchants to the larger staple places, such as jakutsk, nertschinsk, tobolsk, kiachta, irbit, nishne-novgorod, and finally st. petersburg and moscow; for by repeatedly sorting and matching the size and color of the skins, their value is increased.
about thirty years ago firs were still the chief export article of siberia—to china, european russia, and western europe—but since then the discovery of its rich auriferous deposits has made gold its most important produce. the precious metal is found on the western slopes of the ural chain and in west siberia; but the most productive diggings are situated in east siberia, where they give occupation to many thousands of workmen, and riches to a few successful speculators.
the vast territory drained by the upper jenissei and its tributaries, the superior and the middle tunguska, consists for the greater part of a dismal and swampy primeval forest, which scarcely thirty years since was almost totally unknown. a few wretched nomads and fur-hunters were the only inhabitants of the taiga—as those sylvan deserts are called—and squirrel skins seemed all they were ever likely to produce. a journey through the taiga is said to be one of the most fatiguing and tedious tours which it is possible to make. up-hill and down-hill, a narrow path leads over a swampy ground, into which the horses sink up to their knees. the rider is scarcely less harassed than the patient animal which carries him over this unstable soil. no bird enlivens the solitary forest with its song; the moaning of the wind in the crowns of the trees alone interrupts the gloomy silence. the eternal sameness of the scene—day after day one constant succession of everlasting larches and fir-trees—is as wearying to the mind as the almost impassable road to the body.
but suddenly the sound of the axe or the creaking of the water-wheel is heard; the forest opens, a long row of huts extends along the banks of a rivulet, and hundreds of workmen are seen moving about as industrious as a hive214 of bees. what is the cause of all this activity—of this sudden change from a death-like quiet to a feverish life? these are the gold-fields; the sands of these swampy grounds are mixed, like those of the pactolus, with gold, and their fortunate possessors would not exchange them for the finest meadows, cornfields, or vineyards.
fedor popow, a hunter of the province of tomsk, is said to have been the first discoverer of gold in siberia; and government having granted permission to private persons to search for the precious metal, a few enterprising men directed their attention to the wild spurs of the sajan mountains. a brilliant success rewarded their endeavors. in the year 1836 an exploring-party, sent out by a merchant named jakin resanow, discovered a rich deposit of auriferous sand near the banks of the great birussa; and in 1839–40, similar deposits were found along several of the tributaries of the upper tunguska, and still farther to the north, on the oktolyk, a rivulet that flows into the pit.
the expenses of a searching-party amount, on an average, to 3000 silver roubles (£600); and as very often no gold whatever is found, these hazardous explorations not seldom put both the purse and the perseverance of their undertakers to a severe trial. thus nikita maesnikow had spent no less than 260,000 silver roubles (£52,000) in fruitless researches, when he at length discovered the rich gold-field on the peskin, which, as we shall presently see, amply remunerated him for his previous losses.
of the difficulties which await the gold-searchers, a faint idea may be formed, on considering that the whole of the auriferous region, which far surpasses in size most of the european kingdoms, consists of one vast forest like that above described. patches of grass-land on which horses can feed are of very rare occurrence, and damp moss is the only bed the taiga affords. as the gold-searchers are very often at work some hundreds of versts from the nearest village, they are obliged to carry all their provisions along with them. their clothes are almost constantly wet, from their sleeping in the damp forest, from the frequent rains to which they are exposed, and from their toiling in the swampy ground. scarcely have they dug a few feet deep when the pit fills with water, which they are obliged to pump out as fast as it gathers, and thus standing up to their knees in the mud, they work on until they reach the solid rock, for then only can they be certain that no auriferous layer has been neglected in their search. when we consider, moreover, that all this labor is very often totally useless, their perseverance can not but be admired; nor is it to be wondered at that exploring-parties have sometimes encamped on the site of rich gold-deposits without examining the spot, their patience having been exhausted by repeated failures in the vicinity. when the winter, with its deep snowfalls, suddenly breaks in upon the searchers, their hardships become dreadful. the frost and want of food kill their horses, their utensils have to be left behind; and dragging their most indispensable provisions along with them on small sledges, they are not seldom obliged to wade for weeks through the deep snow before they reach some inhabited place.
but even the severity of a siberian winter does not prevent the sending out of exploring-parties. such winter explorations are only fitted out for the more215 accurate examination of very swampy auriferous grounds that have been discovered in the previous year, and where it is less difficult to work in the frozen soil than to contend with the water in summer. a winter-party travels without horses, the workmen themselves transporting all that they require on light sledges. they are obliged to break up the obdurate soil with pickaxes, and the sand thus loosened has to be thawed and washed in warm water. after their day’s work, they spend the night in huts made of the branches of trees, where they sleep on the hard ground. it requires the iron constitution of a siberian to bear such hardships, to which many fall a prey, in spite of their vigorous health.
a gold-deposit having been found, the fortunate discoverer obtains the grant of a lot of ground, 100 sashens (600 feet) broad, and 2500 sashens (or 5 versts) long. two adjoining lots are never granted to the same person, but a subsequent purchase or amalgamation is permitted. at first government was satisfied with a moderate tax of 15 per cent. of the produce; subsequently, however, this was doubled, until within the last few years, when, the gold production having been found to decrease, the primitive impost was returned to, or even reduced to 5 per cent. for the less productive mines. besides this tax, from four to eight gold roubles per pound of gold, according to the richness of the diggings, have to be paid for police expenses. only a twelve years’ lease is granted, after which the digging reverts to the crown, and a new lease has to be purchased. as the severe climate of the taiga limits the working-time to four months (from may to september), the period of the concession is thus in reality not more than four years.
the first care of the lessee is, of course, to collect the necessary provisions and working apparatus. the distant steppe of the kirghese furnishes him with dried or salted meat; his iron utensils he purchases in the factories of the ural; the fairs of irbit and nishne-novgorod supply him with every other article; and rye-meal and fishes he easily obtains from the siberian peasants or traders. by water and by land, all these various stores have to be transported in summer to the residence or establishment of the gold-digger on the border of the taiga. the transport through the taiga itself takes place during the winter, on sledges, at a very great cost; and the expense is still more increased if time has been lost through inattention, as then all that may still be wanting has to be conveyed to the spot on the backs of horses.
most of the men that are hired for working in the diggings are exiles—the remainder generally free peasants, who have been reduced in their circumstances by misfortunes or misconduct. the procuring of the necessary workmen is an affair of no small trouble and expense. before every summer campaign the agents of the gold-diggers travel about the country like recruiting-sergeants, and after giving many fair words and some hand-money, they take the passport of the man engaged as a security for his appearance. but although a passport is an indispensable document in siberia, yet it not seldom happens that the workman finds means to obtain a new one under some other name, and, engaging himself to a new master, defrauds the first of his hand-money.
it may be easily imagined that, as the workmen only consist of the refuse216 of society, the greatest discipline is necessary to keep them in order. the system of a secret police, so cherished by all arbitrary governments, is here extended to its utmost limits; scarcely has a suspicious word fallen among the workmen, when the director is immediately informed of it, and takes his measures accordingly. every man knows that he is watched, and is himself a spy upon his companions.
hofmann relates an instance of a plot singularly nipped in the bud. in one of the gold-diggings on the noiba, the workmen, at the instigation of an under-overseer, had refused to perform a task assigned to them. it was to be feared that the spirit of insubordination would gain ground, and extend over all the neighboring diggings. the director, consequently, sent at once for military assistance; this, however, proved to be unnecessary, for when the cossacks arrived at the noiba, a thunder-storm arose, and at the very moment they came riding up to the digging a flash of lightning killed the ringleader in the midst of the mutineers. as soon as the men recovered from the first shock of their surprise and terror, they all exclaimed, “this is the judgment of god!” and, without any further hesitation, at once returned to their duty.
besides free rations, the ordinary wages of a common workman are 15 roubles banco, or 12 shillings a month, but more experienced hands receive 50 or even 60 roubles. the pay dates from the day when the workman makes his appearance at the residence, and thenceforward, also, his rations are served out to him. they consist of a pound of fresh or salt meat, or an equivalent portion of fish on fasting-days, cabbage and groats for soup, besides fresh rye-bread and quas (the favorite national beverage) ad libitum. the whole number of workmen employed in a gold-digging subdivide themselves into separate societies, or artells. each of these elects a chief, or head-man, to whom the provisions for his artell are weighed out, and to whom all the other common interests are intrusted. the sale of spirituous liquor is strictly forbidden, for its use would render it impossible to maintain order; and, according to law, no gin-shop is allowed to be opened within 60 versts of a digging.
the pay and the liberal rations received would alone be insufficient to allure workmen to the diggings, for, as we have seen, the voyage there and back is extremely irksome, and the labor very fatiguing. an excellent plan has consequently been devised for their encouragement. the contract of each workman distinctly specifies the quantity of his daily work, consisting of a certain number of wheelbarrows of sand—from 100 to 120, according to the distance from the spot where it is dug to the place where it is washed out—each reckoned at three pouds,11 which one party has to fill, another to convey to the wash-stands, and a third to wash.
the task is generally completed by noon, or early in the afternoon. for the labor they perform during the rest of the day, or on sundays and holidays, they receive an extra pay of two or three roubles for every solotnik of gold they wash. every evening the workmen come with the produce of their free labor to the office, the gold is weighed in their presence, and the artell credited for the amount of its share. this free-work is as advantageous for the masters217 as the laborers. the former enjoy a net profit of eight or ten roubles per solotnik, and all the working expenses are of course put to the charge of the contract labor; and the latter earn a great deal of money, according to their industry or good-luck, for when fortune favors an artell, its share may amount to a considerable sum. during hofmann’s stay at the birussa, each workman of a certain artell earned in one afternoon 72 roubles, and the sunday’s work of another of these associations gave to each of its members 105 roubles, or £4. the artisans—who, though employed in a gold-mine, are not engaged in digging or washing the auriferous sand—are also rewarded from time to time by a day’s free-labor in places which are known to be rich. on one of these occasions a cossack on the oktolyk received 300 roubles for his share of the gold that was washed out of 49 wheelbarrows of sand. these of course are extraordinary cases, but they show how much a workman may gain; and being of course exaggerated by report, are the chief inducements which attract the workmen, and keep them to their duty.
if the free-labor is unproductive, many of the workmen desert or give up free-labor altogether, and in both cases the master is a loser. to prevent this, it is customary, in many of the diggings, to pay the workmen a fixed sum for their extra work.
at the end of the season the workmen are paid off, and receive provisions for their home-journey. generally, the produce of their summer’s labor is spent, in the first villages they reach, in drinking and gambling; so that, to be able to return to their families, they are obliged to bind themselves anew for the next season, and to receive hand-money from the agent, who, knowing their weakness, is generally on the spot to take advantage of it. after spending a long winter full of want and privations, they return to the taiga in spring, and thus, through their own folly, their life is spent in constant misery and hard labor.
during the winter the digging is deserted, except by an under-overseer and a few workmen, who make the necessary preparations for the next campaign, receive and warehouse the provisions as they arrive, and guard the property against thieves or wanton destruction. the upper-overseer or director, meanwhile, is fully occupied at the residence in forwarding the provisions and stores that have arrived there during the summer to the mine, in making the necessary purchases for the next year, in sending his agents about the country to engage new workmen; and thus the winter is, in fact, his busiest time. with the last sledge transport he returns to the digging, to receive the workmen as they arrive, and to see that all is ready for the summer. as his situation is one of great trust and responsibility, he enjoys a considerable salary. maesnikow, for instance, paid his chief director 40,000 roubles a year; and 6000 or 8000 roubles, besides free station, and a percentage of the gold produced, is the ordinary emolument.
it is thus evident that the expenses of a siberian gold-mine are enormous, but when fortune favors the undertaker he is amply rewarded for his outlay; an annual produce of 10, 15, or 20 pouds of gold is by no means uncommon. in the year 1845, 458 workmen employed in the gold-mine of mariinsk, belonging218 to messrs. golubdow and kusnezow, produced 81 pouds 19⅓ lbs. of the much-coveted metal; in the year 1843 the mine of olginsk, belonging to lieutenant malewinsky, yielded 82 pouds 37¼ 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 102½ 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 is 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 sterlets12 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; and219 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.
