g. Every gold miner must send the
product of his diggings to the government establishment at Barnaool,
where it is smelted and assayed. The owner receives its money value,
minus the Imperial tax of fifteen per cent.

The whole valley of the Yenesei, as far as explored, is auriferous.
Were it not for the extreme rigor of its climate and the disadvantages
of location, it would become immensely productive. Some mines have
been worked at a profit where the earth is solidly frozen and must be
thawed by artificial means. One way of accomplishing this is by piling
wood to a height of three or four feet and then setting it on fire.
The earth thawed by the heat is scraped off, and fresh fires are made.
Sometimes the frozen earth is dug up and soaked in water. Either
process is costly, and the yield of gold must be great to repay the
outlay. A gentleman in Irkutsk told me he had a gold mine of this
frozen character, and intimated that he found it profitable. The
richest gold mines thus far worked in Siberia are in the government of
Yeneseisk, but it is thought that some of the newly opened placers in
the Trans-Baikal province and along the Amoor will rival them in
productiveness.

[Illustration: HYDRAULIC MINING.]

In Irkutsk I met a Russian who had spent some months in California,
and proposed introducing hydraulic mining to the Siberians. No quartz
mines have been worked in Eastern Siberia, but several rich leads are
known to exist, and I presume a thorough exploration would reveal many
more. I saw excellent specimens of gold-bearing quartz from the
governments of Irkutsk and Yeneseisk. One specimen in particular, if
in the hands of certain New York operators, would be sufficient basis
for a company with a capital of half a million. In the Altai and Ural
mountains quartz mills have been in use for many years.

The Siberian gold deposits were made available long before Russia
explored and conquered Northern Asia. There are many evidences in the
Ural mountains of extensive mining operations hundreds of years ago.
Large areas have been dug over by a people of whom the present
inhabitants can give no account. It is generally supposed that the
Tartars discovered and opened these gold mines shortly after the time
of Genghis Khan.

The native population of the valley of the Yenesei comprises several
distinct tribes, belonging in common to the great Mongolian race. In
the extreme north, in the region bordering the Arctic Ocean, a