t regulations and the interest of proprietors require that
the laborers should be well fed and housed and tended during sickness.
Every mining establishment maintains a physician either on its own
account or jointly with a neighbor. The national dish of Russia,
_schee_, is served daily, with at least a pound of beef. Sometimes the
treatment of the men lapses into negligence toward the close of the
season, especially if the enterprise is unfortunate; but this is not
the case in the early months. The mining proprietors understand the
importance of keeping their laborers in good health, and to secure
this end there is nothing better than proper food and lodging. Vodki
is dealt out in quantities sufficiently small to prevent intoxication,
except on certain feast-days, when all can get drunk to their liking.
No drinking shops can be kept on the premises until the season's work
is over and the men are preparing to depart.

Every laborer is paid for extra work, and if industrious and prudent
his wages will equal thirty-five or forty roubles a month beside his
board. While in debt he is required by law to work every day, not even
resting on Saints' days or Sundays. The working season lasting only
about four months, early and late hours are a necessity. When the
year's operations are ended the most of the men find their way to the
larger towns, where they generally waste their substance in riotous
living till the return of spring. As in mining communities everywhere,
the prudent and economical are a minority.

The mines in the government of Yeneseisk are generally on the
tributaries of the Yenesei river. The valley of the Pit is rich in
gold deposits, and has yielded large fortunes to lucky operators
during the past twenty years. Usually the pay-dirt begins twenty or
thirty feet below the surface, and I heard of a mine that yielded
handsome profits though the gold-bearing earth was under seventy feet
of soil. Prospecting is conducted with great care, and no mining
enterprise is commenced without a thorough survey of the region to be
developed. Wells or pits are dug at regular intervals, the exact depth
and the character of the upper earth being noted. This often involves
a large expenditure of money and labor, and many fortunes have been
wasted, by parties whose lucky star was not in the ascendant, in their
persistent yet unsuccessful search for paying mines.

Solid rock is sometimes struck sooner or later after commencing wor