Note 1 — Chapter XXIX · FROM KIAKHTA TO CHITA.

It is not unlikely that the iron here alluded to had come from Petrovsky Zavod, which is about 100 miles south-east of Verchne Udinsk. These ironworks were established during the reign of Peter the Great, and at one time were worked by convicts; but, so far as they are in activity now, free labour, I believe, is employed. This Zavod was formerly of importance to the locality. The engines for the first steamers that Russia placed on the Amur were made here. Guns, also, have been cast and bored by Russian workmen. There is plenty of coal, too, in the neighbourhood, but it is not much used, as wood is plentiful. I heard very little of the operations carried on at present, but it seems that in the whole Trans-Baikal province there were produced, in 1877, of cast iron 482 tons and of wrought iron 280 tons. Thirty years ago, Petrovski wrought 18 tons of bar iron annually.