We use malachite for jewelry, and think it very good; those of us who have been in St. Petersburg will recall the Church of St. Isaac, where there are whole columns apparently of solid malachite. I say apparently, for those columns are of granite, with a malachite veneering an inch or two in thickness, for the reason that the material does not come in sufficiently solid shape to be used for making columns. It is a good deal honey-combed, and there are numerous vacant places in a large block of it. There was a block of malachite in the Paris Exposition which measured something like seven feet in length by four in width, and there was a nicely-polished spot on one side, a couple of feet in length, and a foot and a half in width. This was said to be one of the largest solid blocks of the material in Russia, and it was regarded as a great curiosity by many thousands of visitors. At the Philadelphia Exhibition in 1876, there was much interest manifested in the Russian department, in consequence of the fine display of this article. There was a fire-place whose mantel and side-pieces were solid slabs of malachite. Then there were two or three large vases and other ornamental pieces, all of the same material; and very rich they were. People were never weary of gazing upon these things and commenting on their beauty. [Sidenote: RUSSIAN SHEET-IRON.] There are several other mining estates besides this in the Oural mountains, and some of them are nearly as extensive. There the government has establishments of its own, where it makes its machinery for ships of war and other purposes, and manufactures cannon and cannon shot, and many other things which are constructed of iron or steel. One of the private works which I visited was that of Issetskoi, where they make iron of peculiar toughness and polish. Nearly all the “Russia sheet-iron” which is so popular in America, for the manufacture of stove pipes and parlor stoves, comes from this establishment. It is capable of being rolled to the thinness of letter-paper, and will stand a vast amount of bending before it breaks. At one of the mining and manufacturing works in this region, there is an establishment for the production of cutlery, and a vast amount is annually turned out. Its sword-blades, knives, and other things are of great fineness, but generally they are not as nicely finished as the products of Birmingham and Sheffield. About 1848, a process of making Damascus steel was invented by General Anossoff, who was then in charge of the works, and since then, blades that could be bent double, without danger of breaking, have been turned out in great numbers. Some of these have found their way abroad, but the government does not facilitate their sale outside the country. [Sidenote: EKATERINENBERG.]