The working of the gold regions of Siberia has not been of the democratic character which it has assumed in California and Australia. There the first comer, provided he were furnished with a pickaxe, a bowl, a cradle, and a small store of provisions, might, without further capital, pitch his tent over some square yards of land, and dig until he has made his fortune. With a license costing 60s. in Australia, and with a tax of 20 dollars a year in California, he may go where he pleases. It is not the government which fixes his boundary, but the regulations of the republic of miners, forming a community along the banks of a river, or at the foot of a hill, forbidding one man to usurp a greater space than he can work with his own hands; the miner himself possessing nothing, and therefore, risking nothing, may dispense with all calculations of profit and loss. If the spot he has selected does not answer his expectations, he shifts his ground, or his occupation. Under any circumstances, the tax, not bearing upon capital, and being moderate in amount, is easily paid; a few days work is sufficient for it; the remainder of his time during the year with his bad or good luck, is at his own free disposal. Such is not the case, in the Altai, where the aristocratic forms attaching to all industry, either at the will of the state, or from the force of circumstances, have exerted their influence over the first commencement of working the mineral districts. By the terms of the imperial decrees, concessions are only obtained on special application, and for a term of twelve years, and the portion assigned to each person never exceeds 100 sagenes (about [71]250 metres) by five wersts, (about 5335 metres); the same person may, however, take several lots, provided they are separated by a distance of five wersts. These contractors engage a certain number of workmen, whom they provide with utensils and machinery, besides feeding them and paying them high wages. Everything connected with the arrangements entails considerable advance of capital, and when the chance of a small return, or sometimes of no return at all, is added to the heavy deduction to be paid to the state, out of the raw material, is it surprizing that members of this community are frequently unwilling to extend their operations, and almost always anxious to conceal the magnitude of their working? It is said, that in keeping up the amount of the tax, the Russian Government has had less in view the advantage of a larger participation of interests than a desire to check a kind of industry very demoralizing in its nature. If such is really the motive, it might be less critically censured. Whatever the reason, so long as the Russian Government considers it advisable to keep up the present taxation, it is not likely that the increase of production of gold will be considerable; it appears to be limited for the present to an amount probably not exceeding [72]90,000,000 to [73]100,000,000 francs per annum.