Note 1 — Chapter XXX · THE BURIATS.

The collecting, pounding, moulding, and drying of dung is, further south, an important branch of commerce. Argols are of four classes. In the first rank are the argols of goats and sheep, which make so fierce a fire that a bar of iron placed therein is soon brought to a white heat. The argols of camels constitute the second class; they burn easily, and throw out a fine flame, but the heat they give is less intense than that given by the preceding. The third class comprises the argols of the bovine species; these, when thoroughly dry, burn readily, and produce no smoke. Lastly come the argols of horses and other animals, which, not having undergone the process of rumination, present nothing but a mass of straw more or less triturated. They are soon consumed, but are useful for lighting a fire. This fuel is called kiseek in Russia, and in the southern governments was the only kind available for the poorer inhabitants, wood being very scarce and dear. The discovery of coal, and the establishment of manufactories, has wrought a complete change in the means of heating in Ekaterinoslaf. Kiseek was made from the dung of cattle and sheep, laboriously trodden under foot by women, and then sun-dried.