Highman (profession)

Gorschik is a specialist in the extraction of precious and colored stones. The name of the profession comes from the expression "work in grief" (in the mine). The profession of a mountain worker was spread in the Urals in the 19th - early 20th centuries. In fiction, the word "mountainer" is known from the works of P. P. Bazhov . The term closest to the mountainer is the word " prospector ". But the prospectors are often called those who are engaged in the search and mining of placer gold and platinum, in contrast to the miners, who are mainly engaged in the search for gems. The etymological word “ miner ” has a meaning that significantly distinguishes it from “miner”. A miner is a professional specialist in mining, an engineer, a technician, or a worker, and a miner is a self-taught person who searches for stones privately.

“There were a lot of famous highlanders in our places. It also happened that truly learned people, academics, called them professors and were amazed at how thinly the mountains found out that they were illiterate ”( Bazhov P.P. Dalevoy Gazler).