Besides free rations, the ordinary wages of a common workman are 15 roubles banco, or 12 shillings a month, but more experienced hands receive 50 or even 60 roubles. The pay dates from the day when the workman makes his appearance at the residence, and thenceforward, also, his rations are served out to him. They consist of a pound of fresh or salt meat, or an equivalent portion of fish on fasting-days, cabbage and groats for soup, besides fresh rye-bread and _quas_ (the favorite national beverage) _ad libitum_. The whole number of workmen employed in a gold-digging subdivide themselves into separate societies, or artells. Each of these elects a chief, or head-man, to whom the provisions for his artell are weighed out, and to whom all the other common interests are intrusted. The sale of spirituous liquor is strictly forbidden, for its use would render it impossible to maintain order; and, according to law, no gin-shop is allowed to be opened within 60 versts of a digging. The pay and the liberal rations received would alone be insufficient to allure workmen to the diggings, for, as we have seen, the voyage there and back is extremely irksome, and the labor very fatiguing. An excellent plan has consequently been devised for their encouragement. The contract of each workman distinctly specifies the quantity of his daily work, consisting of a certain number of wheelbarrows of sand--from 100 to 120, according to the distance from the spot where it is dug to the place where it is washed out--each reckoned at three pouds,[11] which one party has to fill, another to convey to the wash-stands, and a third to wash.