CHAPTER XXXIII.

_THE SILVER AND (SO-CALLED) QUICKSILVER MINES OF NERTCHINSK._

The supposed quicksilver-mines.--Inadequate evidence of their existence.--Unsupported statements of writers.--Not known to Anglo-Siberians.--Silver-mines, perhaps, intended.--Deleterious fumes a myth.--Questionable allegations regarding silver-mines.--Sensational writers.--Misstatements exposed.--Testimony of Collins and other eye-witnesses.--Accounts of ex-prisoners and Lutheran pastor.--Nertchinsk Zavod and work in the mines.--Condition of affairs in 1866.--Present state of things.--The Nemesis of exaggeration 408