When the pay-dirt is reached, its depth and the number of zolotniks of gold in every pood taken out are ascertained.  With the results before him a practical miner can readily decide whether a place will pay for working.  Of course he must take many contingent facts into consideration, such as the extent of the placer, the resources of the region, the roads or the expense of making them, provisions, lumber, transportation, horses, tools, men, and so on through a long list.

The earth over the pay-dirt is broken up and carted off; its great depth causes immense wear of horseflesh.  A small mine employs three or four hundred workmen, and larger ones in proportion.  I heard of one that kept more than three thousand men at work.  The usual estimate for horses is one to every two men, but the proportion varies according to the character of the mine.

The pay-dirt is hauled to the bank of the river, where it is washed in machines turned by water power.  Various machines have been devised for gold-washing, and the Russians are anxious to find the best invention of the kind.  The one in most general use and the easiest to construct is a long cylinder of sheet iron open at both ends and perforated with many small holes.  This revolves in a slightly inclined position, and receives the dirt and a stream of water at the upper end.  The stones pass through the cylinder and fall from the opposite end, where they are examined to prevent the loss of ‘nuggets.’  Fine dirt, sand, gold, and water pass through the perforations, and are caught in suitable troughs, where the lighter substance washes away and leaves the black sand and gold.

Great care is exercised to prevent thefts, but it does not always succeed.  The laborers manage to purloin small quantities, which they sell to contraband dealers in the larger towns.  The government forbids private traffic in gold dust, and punishes offences with severity; but the profits are large and tempting.  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.