I had several commissions to execute for the purchase of souvenirs at Ekaterineburg, and lost no time in visiting a dealer.  While we were at breakfast an itinerant merchant called, and subsequently another accosted us on the street.  At ordinary times, strangers are beset by men and boys who are walking cabinets of semi-precious stones.  A small boy met me in the corridor of the hotel and repeated a lapidarious vocabulary that would have shamed a professor of mineralogy.

At the dealer’s, I was very soon in a bewildering collection of amethyst, beryl, chalcedony, topaz, tourmaline, jasper, aquamarine, malachite, and other articles of value.  The collection numbered many hundred pieces comprising seals, paper, weights, beads, charms for watch chains, vases, statuettes, brooches, buttons, etc.  The handles of seals were cut in a variety of ways, some representing animals or birds, while a goodly portion were plain or fluted at the sides.

The prettiest work I saw was in paper weights.  There were imitations of leaves, flowers, and grapes in properly tinted stone fixed upon marble tablets either white or colored.  Equal skill was displayed in arranging and cutting these stones.  I saw many beautiful mosaics displaying the stones of the Ural and Altai mountains.

Natural crystals were finely arranged in the shape of miniature caves and grottoes.  Beads were of malachite, crystal, topaz, and variegated marble, and seemed quite plentiful.  Malachite is the most abundant of the half-precious stones of the Ural, crystal and topaz ranking next.  Aquamarine was the most valuable stone offered.  It is not found in the Urals but comes from Eastern Siberia.

In another establishment there were little busts of the Emperor and other high personages in Russia, cut in crystal and topaz.  I saw a fine bust of Yermak, and another of the elder Demidoff, both in topaz.  A crystal bust of Louis Napoleon was exhibited, and its owner told me it would be sent to the Exposition Universelle.  Learning that I was an American, the proprietor showed me a half completed bust of Mr. Lincoln, and was gratified to learn that the likeness was good.  The bust was cut in topaz, and when finished would be about six inches high.

Though no work was in progress I had opportunity to look through a private “fabric.”  Stone cutting is performed as by lapidaries every where with small wheels covered with diamond dust or emery.  Each laborer has his bench and performs a particular part of the work under the direction of a superintendent.  Wages were very low, skilled workmen being paid less than ordinary stevedores in America.  For three roubles, I bought a twelve sided topaz, an inch in diameter with the signs of the zodiac neatly engraved upon it.  In London or New York, the cutting would have cost more than ten times that amount.  The Granilnoi Fabric employs about a hundred and fifty workmen, but no private establishment supports more than twenty-five.  The Granilnoi Fabric was to be sold in 1867, and pass out of government control.  The laborers there were formerly crown peasants, and became free under the abolition ukase of Alexander II.  The palace and Imperial museum at St. Petersburg contain wonderful illustrations of their skill.