of the Ural Mountains. 125 



ments of the Ural chain, to show of what sedimentary masses it 

 was originally composed, and to explain by what agency the strata 

 have been dislocated and altered. In the latter respect they are 

 aware that their labours have to a great extent been anticipated by 

 the researches of Baron Humboldt, and his companions M. G. Rose 

 and M. Ehrenberg, as well as by their predecessors Colonel Hel- 

 mersenandM. Hoffmann*, and various officers of the Imperial School 

 of Mines f. 



Moving in two parties and upon separate but parallel lines of re- 

 search, the authors examined both flanks of the chain simultane- 

 ously, their force being brought together at the chief establishments 

 by mutual converging traverses ; and thus, in less than three months, 

 they acquired a general knowledge of the chain from Bogoslofsk on 

 the north to Orsk and Orenburg on the south, a distance of about 

 550 miles. It is not pretended that this knowledge is precise in re- 

 lation to the mineral structure of the mining tracts ; as such details 

 either have been or will be worked out by Russian engineers. The 

 authors merely hope to have succeeded in giving an unity of geolo- 

 gical composition to the chain, so that the age of the chief masses 

 may be effectively compared with the unaltered deposits of the 

 plains of Russia, and by this means with the geological succession of 

 sedimentary deposits already established in Europe. 



Physical Features. — Referring to Capt. Strajefski for his account 

 of the northernmost and uncolonized part of the chain, which he ex- 

 plored amid great privations to 65° N. lat., the physical geography 

 of the civilized portion is briefly sketched, and the chief altitudes, as 

 determined by Colonel Helmersen, are given. The general bearing of 

 the chain, as well known, trends from north to south. Ekaterinburg, 

 the chief town, is situated on the eastern side of the only very low 

 depression in the range, from which point this dividing crest between 

 Europe and Asia rises both to the north and south, and attains al- 

 titudes occasionally of 2500 feet. The northern Ural, formerly 

 occupied by Voguls, who still live in the wildernesses north of 61 

 degrees, is inhospitable in climate, and is chiefly occupied by dense 

 forests, through which the rocks of the central water-shed are per- 

 ceptible only at intervals. This monotony, however, is enlivened by 

 knots of mountains which rise up on the sides of the parting ridge, 

 and overtop it. Such are the Katch Kanar, the Pawdinskoi Kamen, 

 near Bogoslofsk, 2784 English feet, and the Konjakofski Kamen, 

 to the north of the same places, about 5700 feet above the seaj. 

 Whilst the North Ural (or that north of Ekaterinburg) has one per- 

 sistent direction with some lower flanking ridges parallel to the chief 



* See various works on given districts of the Ural mountains by officers 

 of the Imperial School of Mines. 



f These works are referred to and ably condensed in a Russian work by 

 Prof. Stsburofski of Moscow. 



X This mountain was once estimated tobave an altitude of 8000 or 9000 feet, 

 but by the trigonometrical observations of Fedoroff and the barometrical cal- 

 culations of KupfFer, it has been ascertained that it cannot exceed 5280 Paris 

 feet above the sea. It was upon this point of the range that the authors saw 

 much snow in the month of July. 



