Note 12 — Chapter XIX · A VISIT TO A GOLD-MINE.

There are, or were, some rich gold-mine proprietors at Kiakhta. One firm there, consisting of three partners, washed in one year enough gold to give a net profit of £600,000; they expected the year after to make £1,000,000; and the Government surveyor calculated that at that rate the mine would last 50 years. Thus many fortunes are realized in Siberia; but hardly a month passes without chronicling some one’s ruin, which may often be attributed to the fast life and gaming propensities of the miners. Hence, although between the years 1833 and 1870 about 30,000 poods of gold were sent out of Eastern Siberia alone, to the value of £50,000,000, the finding of which gave employment in some years to upwards of 30,000 workmen, yet it will be seen from the foregoing that this great wealth has not proved an unmixed blessing, for the discovery of a gold-mine never brings to it a population permanently thriving and industrious.