The empress was astonished, and communicated the fact to the emperor.
There was a great row at once. An officer was sent to Ekaterinenberg to search the house of the director, and all other persons connected with the imperial factory. He found several stones of great value in the house of the director, and as the latter could not explain, he was arrested and sent to prison, where he died a few years later. Many people believed, and still believe, that he was innocent, and that the theft was committed at St. Petersburg, by some member of the imperial family.
Strange to say, very few emeralds have ever been discovered in that region, and none since that time of equal value with those that had such a curious history.
GOLD MINING IN RUSSIA.
The principal gold mining of Russia is carried on in the Asiatic portion of the empire. Some deposits have been found of enormous richness, and many fortunes have been made by mining for this precious ore. Formerly, the business was entirely in the hands of the government, but in the last twenty years it has been given up to private enterprise, the government exacting a tax of fifteen per cent. on all gold taken out. In some districts the government continues to manage the business, but it only does this where it cannot let it out to advantage.
The processes employed are various. In some of the mines the earth is washed by means of machinery, much like that used in California, but with a greater expenditure of labor in proportion to the amount handled. In the valleys of the streams which flow into the Yenesei and other rivers, there are many mining establishments; there are others near Lake Baikal, and others again on some of the rivers flowing into the Amoor.
The government mines are worked by convicts, who receive no pay. Only their board, clothes, and lodging are supplied to them, and these are not always of the best quality. The private miners employ their workmen in the villages and towns; they begin operations as early as possible in the spring, and close in the latter part of September. To obtain a concession for working a mine, the applicant must either be a hereditary nobleman, or a merchant of the second guild or class. He obtains a concession five miles long, and about six hundred feet wide, on the borders of and including a stream, so as to give him as much water privilege as possible.
HOW THE MINING IS DONE.
When a claimant has an allotment, he must work it at least one year out of every three, under pain of forfeiture, and there are other requirements with which he must comply.