X.
RUSSIAN MINES AND MINING.
EXTENT OF THE EMPIRE—ITS MINERAL RESOURCES—PETER THE GREAT, AND WHAT HE DID—NIKITE DEMIDOFF—THE DEMIDOFF ESTATES—IRON MINES AND A VISIT TO THEM—WHERE RUSSIAN SHEET IRON IS MADE—COPPER AND MALACHITE—A WONDERFUL SIGHT—STRANGE STORY OF AN EMERALD NECKLACE—GOLD MINING IN SIBERIA—HARDSHIPS OF THE MINERS—HOW THEY ARE TREATED—MODE OF MINING.
The empire of Russia covers nearly an eighth of the land surface of the globe. Her northern limit is the Arctic Ocean, and the regions of eternal ice and snow; on the south, she rests upon the Black Sea, in a region of almost tropical warmth. Tropical fruits grow in her Crimean possessions, while polar bears and reindeer wander over the frozen and barren lands of her extreme north. She has every variety of climate, and every variety of soil. Here are long ranges of lofty mountains enclosing countless treasures of wealth in their rocky bosoms; beyond them you find wide stretches of treeless steppes, fertile as our western prairies, and boundless, apparently, as the sea. Wide and deep rivers wind through her territory, and facilitate the communications which commerce demands; broad lakes spread their shiny surfaces at frequent intervals, and reflect the primeval forests that line their shores. In a word, Russia is a little world in herself. The races of men included in her inhabitants are as varied as her climate; it is said that more than a hundred distinct and different languages are spoken by the subjects of His Imperial Majesty, the Autocrat of all the Russians.
With such a vast territory, and such a variety of mountain and plain, hill and valley, within her borders, Russia may be expected to hold a prominent place as a land of mines.
Such an expectation would be well founded, as the land of the Czar is in the very front rank of mining countries. The intelligence and enterprise of Peter the Great led to the development of her mining interests, and the work thus begun has been steadily followed to the present day.
Probably the best mining school in the world is at St. Petersburg. It has constantly nearly three hundred pupils, all supported at the expense of the government. The establishment is the geological mirror of the entire empire. The mountains of Lapland and the Caucasus, Finland and the Valdai, the vast Ourals, the Altai range and the peaks of Nerchinsk and the Baikal, Siberia and Kamchatka, in fact every part of Russia, have been drawn upon to fill its museum. Not only have they contributed, but they steadily continue to do so, year after year, as fast as new discoveries are made; and the government spares no pains or expense to make the collection the most perfect in the world.
THE PRODUCE IN RUSSIA.
Gold, silver, lead, iron, tin, copper, and other metallic ores are there in abundance, and afford the student the most ample opportunity for study. In the collection of semi-precious or valuable stones there is a bewildering array. We find the topaz of all shades; we find rubies, emeralds, beryls, amethysts, agates, turquoise, onyx, garnets, aqua-marines, malachites, marbles, lapis lazuli, porphyries, and other stones in endless variety. As an illustration of the great variety of the mineral products of Russia, let me mention a little circumstance. On my desk, and lying before me as I write, is a paper weight I brought home from Siberia. It is a small mosaic, perhaps three inches by five, and contains no less than twenty-one kinds of variegated marbles from the Altai mountains. One piece is white, and another is nearly black, and there is great variety between the two extremes.
Almost the only mineral products not known to exist in Russia is diamonds. They have been found in a few instances, but in very small numbers, and under circumstances that led to a strong suspicion that the places of discovery had been “salted.”
MINING SCHOOL AT ST. PETERSBURG.
In order to facilitate the study of the pupils in this school of mines, and make it as practical as possible, all the machinery and apparatus used in a mine has been arranged in an immense museum—some in the form of models, and others of their full size. Great mechanical skill has been displayed in the preparation of this machinery; whether in the shape of models or of full size, the working is perfect, and a student can easily understand from them the labor of the miner, and its result.
Underneath the immense building there is a reproduction of one of the mines at Perm, one of the cities of the Oural mountains. The utmost care has been taken to make the reproduction perfect. You visit the place exactly as you would visit a real mine, and you are shown through it by the light of torches. You have the same temperature that you would have in the mine of which this is a copy, and the same kind of atmosphere.
The character of the earth, the changes of color, the succession of layers of earth, rock, and ore, the machinery, the tools of the workmen, all lead a visitor to suppose he is really in a mine, and that the actual work has only been suspended a few hours while the laborers have been allowed a half holiday.
The great mining centers of Russia are in the Oural and Altai mountains, especially the former. The wealth of the Ourals in minerals was almost unknown until the time of Peter the Great, when he sent some engineers to make an examination. Previous to that time some gold had been found, and brought to Moscow; and it was known that the former rulers of the kingdom of Kazan derived much of their wealth from the gold mines.
But hardly anything was known of the other mineral riches of the mountain range. It did not take a long time for sharp-eyed engineers to discover the existence of iron and copper, and further research showed that they were to be found in large quantities. As soon as the facts were known, the government determined to work the mines on its own responsibility, until their riches could be demonstrated, andprivate parties induced to operate on their own account and risk.
THE FIRST MINERAL EXPLORATION.
The first mineral exploration of this region was made by Nikite Demidoff, in 1701 or 1702. Peter the Great sent him there from Tula, a place which has since become of considerable importance as a manufacturing center. He had a very clear head for his business, and went at it in earnest, and the result is seen to-day in the immense prosperity of the mines. As a reward for his industry, the emperor gave him a grant of territory amounting to nearly five thousand square miles, with whatever mineral or other wealth might be found there.
This princely estate has remained ever since in the possession of the Demidoff family, and has made it the richest family of all Russia, with the exception of the Romanoffs (the Imperial House). It has been admirably controlled, and the owners have spared no pains or expense to secure the most intelligent direction and management. They have conducted everything on a liberal scale; the towns and villages which they have built up are among the prettiest, neatest, and most comfortable in all Russia.
In this last particular they are worthy of imitation everywhere, and many great establishments in Europe and America would be, to-day, more prosperous if they followed the example of the Demidoffs. There are some prominent instances of manufacturing or mining prosperity growing in part from an attention to the wants of the workman, the education of his children, and a general regard for his welfare. The most notable one now occurring to me is that of the Fairbanks Scale Works in Vermont, whose products have obtained a world-wide fame. They have built up upon what was the wilderness, a prosperous town, with schools, libraries, lecture and reading rooms, and they have given inducements for their workmen to be industrious and economical, and become house-owners in their own right. The Fairbanks Brothers never heard, perhaps, of the Demidoffs, but they have followed almost the same course, and with the same result.
Every year the Demidoffs select several of the brightestyouths in each village, and send them to the mining schools of St. Petersburg, and also to France, England, and other countries. These spend several years away from the Ourals, and when they return they bring a stock of very valuable knowledge which is of great practical use.
In my journey through Russia, I visited the mining regions of the Oural, and also of the Altai Mountains, and was greatly interested in what I saw.
THE CASTLE OF THE DEMIDOFFS.
The castle of the Demidoffs, as it is called, stands on the bank of a small river in the Ourals, at the town of Neviansk. Part of it was built by the elder Demidoff; it has since been enlarged, so that it is now a goodly sized palace. In it is a large saloon with fresco paintings by an Italian artist who was specially engaged for the work, and it has several rooms which would make large halls anywhere else. The furniture was made expressly for the house, and is renewed from time to time, whenever it becomes antiquated or faded. Several rooms are kept for the use of travelers, and everything, including the table, is furnished free of charge.
You may arrive there at any hour of the day or night, and find a warm welcome, and a room ready for you. You are fed with a most liberal hand, and may have the best wines known to the European market—champagne, port, sherry, anything and everything you choose. Stay as long as you please, go where you wish to, and you have no bill to pay. Let us hope for a speedy adoption of this Demidoff custom everywhere, with the assurance that it will be highly popular with the majority of visitors, and tend to a large increase in their number.
The principal mining town of the Demidoffs is on the river Tagil, and is known as Nijne Tagilsk. It has a population of about twenty-five thousand, and contains many fine buildings, including churches, hospitals for the workmen, schools, academies, dwellings for the directors and sub-directors, and an immense pile in which are the offices of the administration.
The smelting furnaces, forges, rolling mills, machine shops, and the like, are on an enormous scale, and are surpassed byvery few establishments anywhere in the world. Much of the machinery is made on the spot, and the facilities are such as to astonish any visitor, even when he knows beforehand that he will see something colossal.
All the smelting is done with charcoal, and consequently the charcoal burners are an important element of the population. The forests of the estate cover many hundreds of square miles, and are managed with great care. Not a tree is cut without the order of an officer, and the work is so arranged that the young trees are protected until they are of suitable size. When a piece of ground has been cleared, it is replanted, and in eighty years it can be cleared again.
THE METALS FOUND.
The iron ore is about a mile from the town, and near the top of a hill, so that it can be rolled directly into the works with very little labor. It is of the kind known as magnetic ore, and the supply is simply inexhaustible. It is worked in an open quarry, no tunneling or shafting being needed, and as the vein is four hundred feet wide, eighty feet thick, and a mile or more in length, there is no danger that the supply will be exhausted for some thousands of years. And if it should be, there are other and larger deposits not far away.
Copper is also found in this vicinity, and not more than two miles from the iron mine. It was first discovered about the beginning of the present century, and has since been worked to great advantage.
The most remarkable product of copper is the substance known as malachite. It is found in various parts of the world wherever there are mines of copper, but nowhere else in such quantities as in the Oural mountains. Malachite is nothing more nor less than an oxide of copper. The chemists know exactly how it is formed, but they cannot make it any more than they can make the diamond, though they understand perfectly well the composition of that highly-prized stone. Certain salts in the earth mingle with the copper ore and the water that finds its way through the earth, and these ingredients, soaking slowly downward into crevices and hollows in the rock, form the substance of which the Russians make so much use.
HOW MALACHITE WAS FOUND.
In 1885 the largest mass of malachite ever known was found on the Demidoff estate. The miners, who were working a vein of copper, found some shreds or strips of copper extending downward, and the superintendent of the mine ordered them to follow these shreds, in hopes of striking another vein. The work was pushed forward, or rather downward, and the stray threads of ore were traced in all their windings. Two hundred and eighty feet below the mine, the shreds disappeared, and the superintendent was about to give up the enterprise in disgust and despair, when the men suddenly came upon a huge mass of malachite. It was broken up and taken to the surface, and the aggregate weight of the mass was estimated at seventy tons! It was this lot that supplied the most of the malachite in the Church of St. Isaac, and from it, also, was made the enormous vase which the Emperor of Russia sent to His Holiness the Pope.
We use malachite for jewelry, and think it very good; those of us who have been in St. Petersburg will recall the Church of St. Isaac, where there are whole columns apparently of solid malachite. I say apparently, for those columns are of granite, with a malachite veneering an inch or two in thickness, for the reason that the material does not come in sufficiently solid shape to be used for making columns. It is a good deal honey-combed, and there are numerous vacant places in a large block of it. There was a block of malachite in the Paris Exposition which measured something like seven feet in length by four in width, and there was a nicely-polished spot on one side, a couple of feet in length, and a foot and a half in width. This was said to be one of the largest solid blocks of the material in Russia, and it was regarded as a great curiosity by many thousands of visitors. At the Philadelphia Exhibition in 1876, there was much interest manifested in the Russian department, in consequence of the fine display of this article. There was a fire-place whose mantel and side-pieces were solid slabs of malachite. Then there were two or three large vases and other ornamental pieces, all of the same material; and very rich they were. People were never weary of gazing upon these things and commenting on their beauty.
RUSSIAN SHEET-IRON.
There are several other mining estates besides this in the Oural mountains, and some of them are nearly as extensive. There the government has establishments of its own, where it makes its machinery for ships of war and other purposes, and manufactures cannon and cannon shot, and many other things which are constructed of iron or steel. One of the private works which I visited was that of Issetskoi, where they make iron of peculiar toughness and polish. Nearly all the “Russia sheet-iron” which is so popular in America, for the manufacture of stove pipes and parlor stoves, comes from this establishment. It is capable of being rolled to the thinness of letter-paper, and will stand a vast amount of bending before it breaks.
At one of the mining and manufacturing works in this region, there is an establishment for the production of cutlery, and a vast amount is annually turned out. Its sword-blades, knives, and other things are of great fineness, but generally they are not as nicely finished as the products of Birmingham and Sheffield. About 1848, a process of making Damascus steel was invented by General Anossoff, who was then in charge of the works, and since then, blades that could be bent double, without danger of breaking, have been turned out in great numbers. Some of these have found their way abroad, but the government does not facilitate their sale outside the country.
EKATERINENBERG.
In the Oural mountains, on the great road from Russia to Siberia, is the town or city of Ekaterinenberg, which was founded by the Empress Catherine II, the imperial lady who became famous, among other things, for her peculiar and rather summary ways of making love. Catherine was stately and not ill-looking; the town which perpetuates her name, perpetuates also her characteristics. I drove into it one Christmas morning, after a long ride over the dreary steppes of Siberia, and as I first looked upon its broad streets and the lake around which its principal edifices are built, I thought I had not seen anything lovelier in the line of Russian towns.
It has a population exceeding twenty thousand. Five-sixthsof the inhabitants are connected in some way with the mining interests of the surrounding region, and possibly the occupations of the remaining sixth are not far removed from them. All the copper money circulated in Russia is coined here, and the place does a large business in lapidary work. Amethysts, beryls, rubies, emeralds, and other gems are cut here, and so extensive is the business that the servants at the hotels, and itinerant merchants on the street pester you to purchase these stones, and dozens of others. Seals in countless variety can be had here, and wonderfully cheap when compared with the prices of the same articles in Moscow or St. Petersburg. The government has here a large lapidary establishment, and all its products go, or are supposed to go, to the Imperial palace at St. Petersburg. From this place come the great majority of the semi-precious stones which are given away by the emperor. And hereby hangs a tale.
During the reign of the Emperor Nicholas, some children who were playing in the dry bed of a brook several miles from Ekaterinenberg, found some curious stones which they carried home. These lay around the cottage for some time, and were not thought to be of any value, but one day an officer happened to see them and recognized their character. They were sent to the government establishment, and there disappeared.
They were emerald crystals of unusually fine character, and by law and custom were the property of the emperor. Instead of going to St. Petersburg, they were sent to Germany, and sold, and in course of time were bought by one of the princes of the reigning family, as a present for his wife.
Some years later, she was at St. Petersburg, on some grand occasion, and wore these emeralds. The empress admired them, and asked where they came from.
“They are from Siberia,” was the reply.
The empress was astonished, and communicated the fact to the emperor.
There was a great row at once. An officer was sent to Ekaterinenberg to search the house of the director, and all other persons connected with the imperial factory. He foundseveral stones of great value in the house of the director, and as the latter could not explain, he was arrested and sent to prison, where he died a few years later. Many people believed, and still believe, that he was innocent, and that the theft was committed at St. Petersburg, by some member of the imperial family.
Strange to say, very few emeralds have ever been discovered in that region, and none since that time of equal value with those that had such a curious history.
GOLD MINING IN RUSSIA.
The principal gold mining of Russia is carried on in the Asiatic portion of the empire. Some deposits have been found of enormous richness, and many fortunes have been made by mining for this precious ore. Formerly, the business was entirely in the hands of the government, but in the last twenty years it has been given up to private enterprise, the government exacting a tax of fifteen per cent. on all gold taken out. In some districts the government continues to manage the business, but it only does this where it cannot let it out to advantage.
The processes employed are various. In some of the mines the earth is washed by means of machinery, much like that used in California, but with a greater expenditure of labor in proportion to the amount handled. In the valleys of the streams which flow into the Yenesei and other rivers, there are many mining establishments; there are others near Lake Baikal, and others again on some of the rivers flowing into the Amoor.
The government mines are worked by convicts, who receive no pay. Only their board, clothes, and lodging are supplied to them, and these are not always of the best quality. The private miners employ their workmen in the villages and towns; they begin operations as early as possible in the spring, and close in the latter part of September. To obtain a concession for working a mine, the applicant must either be a hereditary nobleman, or a merchant of the second guild or class. He obtains a concession five miles long, and about six hundred feet wide, on the borders of and including a stream, so as to give him as much water privilege as possible.
HOW THE MINING IS DONE.
When a claimant has an allotment, he must work it at least one year out of every three, under pain of forfeiture, and there are other requirements with which he must comply.
There is generally a heavy outlay for buildings and machinery before the mining begins. To get at the pay-dirt, as it is called in California, the surface earth must be stripped off, and sometimes this stripping is twenty or thirty feet deep. Holes or shafts are sunk to ascertain the depth of the stripping and pay-earth, and from the amount of gold in the latter it is very easy to form an estimate of the probabilities of profit.
Some of the concerns employ two or three thousand workmen, and half as many horses. The cost of horses is the heaviest item of expense, as the loss is very great, and to this must be added the cost of keeping the animals. It often happens that the hay, provisions, and everything else must be carried two or three hundred miles, and consequently the capitalist who goes into the mining business in Siberia, must have a long and deep and well-filled purse to start with.
In these mining establishments, the work is very severe. The bell is rung at half past two in the morning, and a man must be at his post by three. He gets half an hour each for breakfast and tea, and an hour for dinner; he works until nine o’clock at night, and takes his supper when he gets through. If he is in debt to his employer, and the latter generally manages to have him so, he works every day—Sundays, Saints’ days, and all—through the season.
The task set is for five men and two horses to break up and cart away two cubic fathoms of earth per day, and they may quit work whenever they have done it. Or they may work “extra,” and get pretty high wages for it, and altogether a man can earn not far from thirty dollars a month by making long and late hours.
HOW THE MINERS ARE PROVIDED FOR.
It is absolutely necessary, for the interest of the employer, that he should give his men good and abundant food, provide them with comfortable lodgings, and have a hospital for those who become ill. Sometimes two or more establishments unite to hire a surgeon, and in this case he makes a daily round tosee if any one needs his services. The proprietors also maintain stores where they supply their workmen, and it is not considered respectable to charge any profit on the goods beyond enough to pay the cost of transportation and handling.
The workmen are a thriftless lot, generally, and rarely save anything. When their season is over, they proceed to the large towns, and there waste their substance in riotous living. The spring comes and finds them without a copeck, and possibly in debt, from which their only exit is by hiring out to a gold miner, and getting the advance of a month’s pay which custom has established.