In the Oural mountains, on the great road from Russia to Siberia, is the town or city of Ekaterinenberg, which was founded by the Empress Catherine II, the imperial lady who became famous, among other things, for her peculiar and rather summary ways of making love. Catherine was stately and not ill-looking; the town which perpetuates her name, perpetuates also her characteristics. I drove into it one Christmas morning, after a long ride over the dreary steppes of Siberia, and as I first looked upon its broad streets and the lake around which its principal edifices are built, I thought I had not seen anything lovelier in the line of Russian towns. It has a population exceeding twenty thousand. Five-sixths of the inhabitants are connected in some way with the mining interests of the surrounding region, and possibly the occupations of the remaining sixth are not far removed from them. All the copper money circulated in Russia is coined here, and the place does a large business in lapidary work. Amethysts, beryls, rubies, emeralds, and other gems are cut here, and so extensive is the business that the servants at the hotels, and itinerant merchants on the street pester you to purchase these stones, and dozens of others. Seals in countless variety can be had here, and wonderfully cheap when compared with the prices of the same articles in Moscow or St. Petersburg. The government has here a large lapidary establishment, and all its products go, or are supposed to go, to the Imperial palace at St. Petersburg. From this place come the great majority of the semi-precious stones which are given away by the emperor. And hereby hangs a tale. During the reign of the Emperor Nicholas, some children who were playing in the dry bed of a brook several miles from Ekaterinenberg, found some curious stones which they carried home. These lay around the cottage for some time, and were not thought to be of any value, but one day an officer happened to see them and recognized their character. They were sent to the government establishment, and there disappeared. They were emerald crystals of unusually fine character, and by law and custom were the property of the emperor. Instead of going to St. Petersburg, they were sent to Germany, and sold, and in course of time were bought by one of the princes of the reigning family, as a present for his wife. Some years later, she was at St. Petersburg, on some grand occasion, and wore these emeralds. The empress admired them, and asked where they came from. “They are from Siberia,” was the reply. The empress was astonished, and communicated the fact to the emperor.