Ararat^ Pison, and Jerusalem. 265 



idea of gold has been coeval with the human race. Does gold 

 then characterize the land of Hevilah, the Uralian Island of an- 

 tiquity ? The following facts may answer this question. At 

 Beresowsk (on the Urals) are 70 gold mines ; in 1803, 12 new 

 ones were chscovered on their western side. In 1814, an auri- 

 ferous sand was discovered, which fulfilled the most sanguine 

 hopes ; in 1824, it was hoped to yield a million of ducats *, 



The following is the result of an inquiry into the state of the 

 Eastern Urals by a Russian commission in the year 1823 : — 



" The auriferous sand is not, as was believed, the local pro- 

 duct of a few of the torrents from the Urals ; but it is the pro- 

 duct of a great mass of weadiered rock, extending for 1000 versts 

 on the eastern declivity of the chain, and which contains every- 

 where to a certain depth more or less gold." And in a letter of 

 Mr Tschbotaref, it is mentioned that " the Uralian range is 

 perhaps as rich in gold as Mexico, Peru, and Chili -f*." 



Thus have I endeavoured to identify the Pison and the golden 

 land of Havilah which it encompassed |. Probably, in the ante- 

 diluvian ages, this land had not the severity of the Urals, but a 

 milder and more genial climate ; one fitted for the production 

 and preservation of elephants, rhlnoceri, hippopotami, and other 

 now tropical animals. This is proved by the vestiges of these 

 quadrupeds in Siberia. 



Jerusalem 



As we have cast a retrospective glance from the deluge upon 

 Paradise, we shall take a prospective view of Jerusalem. 



If we take the Armenian mountain isle in the above extended 

 signification, and suppose the former union of the eastern Me- 

 diterranean with the Red Sea, the Gulf of Persia, the lakes of 

 Var and Urmia, the Caspian, Euxine, and then back to the Me- 



• Schweigger Jahrbuch der Ch. u. Phys. N. R. b. 16, heft 2, p. 229, 

 partly by Ijeonhard. 



•f- Engelhardt has given some recent intelligence regarding the gold of the 

 Urals, in a little treatise which appeared after a more exact inquiry into 

 these mountains. The public eagerly look for the results of the previous 

 journey of Humboldt to the Urals. 



J I shall communicate my views with regard to the fourth river of Para- 

 dise, the Gihon, as soon as I shall succeed in basing them on a proper collec- 

 tion of facts. 



JULY — SEPTEMBKB. 1830. S 



