recently carried on in the Russian Empire. 291 



rent branches of the Oural mountains, — from the great Taganai 

 and the granites of Iremel, to beyond the plateau of Gouber- 

 linsk, which is connected farther south with the mountains of 

 Mougodjares ; and to Oust-Ourt, between Lake Aral and the 

 Caspian Sea. Even there the rigour of winter did not prevent 

 M. Lemm from making the first astronomical observations in 

 this arid and uninhabited country. We enjoyed the great 

 pleasure of being accompanied for nearly a month by MM. 

 HoiFmann and Helmersson, and it was they who first showed us 

 near Grasnuschinskaia a formation of volcanic amygdaloid, the 

 only one which has been yet found in the long Ouralian chain 

 which separates Europe from Asia, — which presents on its east- 

 ern declivity the most abundant eruptions of metals, — and 

 which contains, either in veins or in the detritus, gold, platiiia, 

 the osmiuret of Iridium, the diamond, (see this Number, p. '^QX) 

 discovered by Count Polier in the alluvium to the west of the 

 high mountains of Catschcanar, zircon, sapphire, amethyst, 

 ruby, topaz, beryl, garnet, anatase, discovered by M. Rose, 

 ceylanite, and other valuable substances found in India and the 

 Brazils. 



I might extend the list of the important labours of the pre- 

 sent year of his Majesty's reign, by mentioning the trigonome- 

 trical operations of the west, which, by the united labours of 

 MM. General Schubert and Tenner, and of the great astro- 

 nomer of Dorpat, M. Struve, have made known on a great 

 scale the figure of the earth ; — the geological constitution of 

 Lake Baikal illustrated by M. Hess ; — the magnetic expedi- 

 tion of MM. Hansteen, Erman and Dowe, justly celebrated 

 over all Europe, and the most extensive and the boldest that 

 was ever undertaken by land, (from Berlin and Christiania to 

 Kamtchatka, where it joined the great labours of Captains 

 Wrangell and Anjou) ; — and, finally, the circumnavigation of 

 the globe, which Captain Luetke has executed by order of 

 the Sovereign, — a voyage abounding in fine astronomical, bota- 

 nical, physical, and anatomical results, with the co-operation of 

 three excellent naturalists, Dr Mertens, Baron KittHz, and M. 

 Postels. 



I have ventured to notice this community of efforts by which 

 several parts of the empire have been explored, by carrying 



