Perm is known to the Russians like Woolwich is to the English, as being a great cannon manufactory. It is said to employ 4000 workmen, and is the largest establishment of the kind in Russia. To see it one must go about three miles farther up the river. In driving there I passed a section of a whitish fissile rock, which was apparently a local representative of the Permian strata. The most noticeable thing at the works was a large steam hammer, said to be the largest in the world. The weight of the head of this instrument is 50 tons, but when steam is employed the energy is equivalent to three times this amount. The anvil on which this falls is a solid block of cast iron, weighing 667 tons. Up till quite recently all the coal used at these works was brought from England, which naturally involved considerable expense. Now they use their own coal, which is found on both sides of the neighbouring Urals in great abundance, coke only being brought from England.