n the surrounding districts. When the local school-mistress, a girl of
seventeen, found a temporary grave in this sort of Black Hole of
Calcutta the wells of Kushva and Taighill became a dreadful portent to
the simple Russian _mujik_.

The opposition began at the big Watkin Works, where over six thousand
men were employed. Though possessing no military organisation, the
workmen decided to resist by force the entrance of the Bolshevik Terror
into their midst. With the help of several young engineers they managed
to regiment themselves into some kind of military order. They selected
with great skill the strategic positions for fortifications, and held
the whole district against the repeated attacks of the enemy. Once the
Bolshevik line of the Urals west of Ekaterinburg struck from north to
south, from Kunghure to the Caspian, as the crow flies, for three
thousand versts, except for one great loop enclosing the Watkin Works.
But in November, 1918, the Bolshevik line swept forward, submerging
these valiant workmen warriors. Admiral Koltchak's Chief of Staff
naturally concluded that the workmen had given up the struggle and had
made terms with their hated enemy.

This surge forward of the Bolsheviks had been greatly assisted by the
unfortunate defection of the Czech forces, who had left the front at the
suggestion of their local National Council. General Gaida had thrown up
his Czech commission, and had been given command of the right wing of
the new Russian army. The admiral proceeded at once to put his new army
to the test by an attempt to recover the lost ground and, if possible,
save the remnants of the Watkin workmen. Everybody now knows how, in a
temperature of over "60 below," these recently mobilised Siberian
recruits re-established the fighting fame of the Russian soldier by
sweeping the Terrorist forces from their positions and entirely
destroying them at Perm. Imagine General Galitzin's surprise when the
advance began to find these Watkin workmen still holding their district
and rendering valuable help to their relieving comrades! The Kushva
Soviet Commissar had built better than he knew.

This district is remarkable for the valuable and extensive deposits of
iron and sulphur, which seem inexhaustible. One huge hill has a store of
about 800,000,000,000 tons, almost untapped except for uncovering work
necessary to estimate its capacity.

The Revolution in Russia may alter a few things, but it can scarcely
effec