rom one pood of dirt, of course unusually rich, Mr.
Kaporaki obtained 24 zolotniks, or three ounces of gold. In another
instance ten poods of dirt yielded 90 zolotniks of gold. The ordinary
yield, as near as I could ascertain, was what a Californian would call
five or six cents to the pan.

Each of these merchant-miners pays to the government fifteen per cent.
of all gold he obtains, and is not allowed to sell the dust except to
the proper officials. He delivers his gold and receives the money for
it as soon as it is melted and assayed. It was hinted to me that much
gold was smuggled across the frontier into China, and never saw the
treasury of his Imperial Majesty, the Czar. The Cossacks of the Argoon
keep a sharp watch for traffic of this kind. "They either," said my
informant, "deliver a culprit over to justice or, what is the same
thing, compel him to bribe them heavily to say nothing."

Nerchinsk formerly stood at the junction of the Nertcha and Shilka, on
the banks of both rivers, but the repeated damage from floods caused
its removal. Even on its present site it is not entirely safe from
inundation, the lower part of the town having been twice under water
and in danger of being washed away.

Many of the present inhabitants are exiles or the descendants of
exiles, Nerchinsk having been a place of banishment for political and
criminal offenders during the last hundred years. Those condemned to
work in the mines were sent to Great Nerchinsk Zavod, about two
hundred miles away. The town was the center of the military and mining
district, and formerly had more importance than at present. Many
participants in the insurrection of 1825 were sent there, among them
the princes Trubetskoi and Volbonskoi. After laboring in the mines and
on the roads of Nerchinsk, they were sent to Chetah, where they were
employed in a polishing mill.

In many stories about Siberian exiles, published in England and
America, Nerchinsk has occupied a prominent position. As far as I
could observe it is not a place of perpetual frost and snow, its
summers being warm though brief. In winter it has cold winds blowing
occasionally from the Yablonoi mountains down the valley of the
Nertcha. The region is very well adapted to agriculture, and the
valley as I saw it had an attractive appearance.

The product of the Nerchinsk mines has been silver, gold, and lead.
The search for silver and lead has diminished since the mines were
opened to private