heel.) ]

Right opposite the village Nasimovskoj is a gold-digger's deserted
"residence," named Yermakova after the first conqueror of Siberia.
The building owed its origin to the discovery of sand-beds rich in
gold, occupying a pretty extensive area east of the Yenisej, which
for a time had the repute of being the richest gold territory in the
world. Here in a short time enormous fortunes were made; and
accounts of the hundreds of poods which one or another yearly reaped
from the sand-beds, and the fast reckless life led by those to whom
fortune dealt out the great prizes in the gold-digging lottery,
still form a favourite topic of conversation in the region. A rise
in the value of labour and a diminished production of the noble
metal have, however, since led to the abandonment of a large number
of the diggings that formerly were most productive; others now
scarcely pay the expense of the working. Many of the gold-diggers
who were formerly rich, in the attempt to win more have been
impoverished, and have disappeared; others who have succeeded in
retaining their "pood of gold"--that is the mint unit which the
gold-diggers prefer to use in their conversation--have removed to
Omsk, Krasnojarsk, Moscow, Petersburg, Paris, &c. The gold-diggers'
residences stand, therefore, now deserted, and form on the eastern
bank of the river a row of half-decayed wooden ruins surrounded by
young trees, after which in no long time only the tradition of the
former period of prosperity will be found remaining. In one respect
indeed the gold-diggers have exerted a powerful influence on the
future of the country. For it was through them that the first
pioneers were scattered in the wilderness, the first seed sown of
the cultivation of the region.

In 1875 there were only two steamers on the Yenisej. These were
neither passenger nor cargo boats, but rather movable commercial
stores, propelled by steam. The fore-saloon formed a shop provided
with a desk, and shelves on which were to be seen cloths, iron
wares, guns, ammunition, tobacco, tea, matches, sugar, brightly
coloured copper engravings or lithographs, &c. In the after-saloon
was enthroned, among brandy casks, purchased furs, and other
precious or delicate wares, he who had the command on board, a kind
and friendly merchant, who evidently did not concern himself much
with the work of the sailors, but rather with trade and the making
of bargains, and who was seldom called by the crew ca