rivaling the famous blades of Damascus and Toledo.

Close by the little lake in Ekaterineburg is the _Moneta Fabric,_ or
Imperial mint, where all the copper money of Russia is coined. It is
an extensive concern, and most of its machinery was constructed in the
city. The copper mines of the Urals are the richest in Russia, and
possess inexhaustible wealth. Malachite--an oxide of copper--is found
here in large quantities. I believe the only mines where malachite is
worked are in the Urals, though small specimens of this beautiful
mineral have been found near Lake Superior and in Australia.

About twenty-five years ago an enormous mass of malachite, said to
weigh 400 tons, was discovered near Tagilsk. It has since been broken
up and removed, its value being more than a million roubles. Sir
Roderick Murchison, while exploring the Urals on behalf of the Russian
government, saw this treasure while the excavations around it were in
progress. According to his account it was found 280 feet below the
surface. Strings of copper were followed by the miners until they
unexpectedly reached the malachite. Other masses of far less
importance have since been found, some of them containing sixty per
cent. of copper.

The gold mines of the Ural are less extensive now than formerly, new
discoveries not equaling the exhausted placers. They are principally
on the Asiatic slope, in the vicinity of Kamenskoi. The Emperor
Alexander First visited the mines of the Ural in 1824, and personally
wielded the shovel and pickaxe nearly two hours. A nugget weighing
twenty-four pounds and some ounces was afterward found about two feet
ibelow the point where His Majesty 'knocked off' work. A monument now
marks the spot, and contains the tools handled by the Emperor.

CHAPTER XLIX.

I had several commissions to execute for the purchase of souvenirs at
Ekaterineburg, and lost no time in visiting a dealer. While we were at
breakfast an itinerant merchant called, and subsequently another
accosted us on the street. At ordinary times, strangers are beset by
men and boys who are walking cabinets of semi-precious stones. A small
boy met me in the corridor of the hotel and repeated a lapidarious
vocabulary that would have shamed a professor of mineralogy.

At the dealer's, I was very soon in a bewildering collection of
amethyst, beryl, chalcedony, topaz, tourmaline, jasper, aquamarine,
malachite, and other articles of value. The collection numbered m