418 Foreign and Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



and purity, are very analogous to those of Plombieres, a circumstance 

 in favour of the formation of a similar establishment*. 



4. HUMBOLDT'S ACCOUNT OF THE GOLD AND PLATINA DISTRICT 



OF RUSSIA. 



The following account is part of a letter from M. Humboldt to M. 

 Arago: ' We spent a month in visiting the goldmines of Borisovsk, 

 the malachite mines of Goumeselevski and of Tagilsk, and the wash- 

 ings of gold and platinum. We were astonished at the pepitas 

 (waterworn masses) of gold, from 2 to 3lbs., and even from 18 to 

 SOlbs., found a few inches below the turf, where they had lain un- 

 known for ages. The position and probable origin of these alluvia, 

 mixed generally with fragments of greenstone, chlorite slate, and 

 serpentine, was one of the principal objects of this journey. The 

 gold annually procured from the washings amounts to 6000 kil. 

 The discoveries beyond 59 and 60 latitude become very important. 

 We possess the teeth of fossil elephants enveloped in these alluvia 

 of auriferous sand. Their formation, consequent on local irruptions 

 and on levellings, is, perhaps, even posterior to the destruction of the 

 large animals. The amber and the lignites, which we discovered on 

 the eastern side of the Ural, are decidedly more ancient. With the 

 auriferous sand are found grains of cinnabar, native copper, ceyla- 

 nites, garnets, little white zircons as brilliant as diamonds, anatase, 

 alvite, &c. It is very remarkable, that in the middle and northern 

 parts of the Ural, the platinum is found in abundance only on the 

 western European side. The rich gold- washings of the Demidov 

 family, at Nijnei'-tagilsk, are on the Asiatic side, on the two acclivi- 

 ties of the Bartiraya, where the alluvium of Vilkni alone has already 

 produced more than 28001bs. of gold. 



The platinum is found about a league to the east of the line of the 

 separation of waters (which must not be confounded with the axis of 

 the high summits), on the European side, near the course of the 

 Oulka, at Sukoi Visnin, and at Martian. M. Schvetsov, who had 

 the good fortune to study under Berthier, and whose learning and 

 activity have been most useful during our travels in the Ural, disco- 

 vered chromate of iron, containing grains of platinum, which an able 

 chemist at Catherineburgh, M. Helm, has analyzed. The washings 

 of platinum at Nijne'i-Tagilsk are so rich, that 100 puds (about 400 

 Ibs. Russian) of sand afford 30 (sometimes 50) solotniks of platinum, 

 whilst the rich alluvia of gold at Vilkni, and other gold washings on 

 the Asiatic side, do not give more than \\ to 2 solotniks in 100 puds 

 of sand. In South America, a very low chain of the Cordilleras, 

 that of Cali, also separates the auriferous and non-platiniferous sands 

 of the eastern declivity (Popayan) , from the sands of the isthmus of 

 the Raspadura of Choco, which are very rich in platinum as well as 

 gold. M. Bousingault may, perhaps, already have thrown a new 



Bib. Univ. 1830, p. 220. 





