406 Miscellanies. 
sciences, a noble munificence displayed in favor of modern civiliza- 
tion.’ 
“Baron Humboldt, being, as is well known, charged with explor- 
ing the Ural Mountains, under a mineralogical point of view, gives 
his friend M. Arago some eminently curious particulars respecting 
this subject. It appears that the mines of this chain of mountains 
contain abundance of platina, and that the gold dust found there far 
surpasses in richness that discovered in the Cordilleras and other 
parts of America. An astonishing number of lumps of gold, of 
eighteen and twenty pounds, are found some inches below the turf, 
where they have hitherto remained unknown. Fossil elephants’ 
teeth are met with, surrounded with alluvion of gold dust. ‘The for- 
mation of these alluvions, the consequence of local destructions, is 
perhaps subsequent to the destruction of the great animals. me 
of them are incredibly rich; and that of Wilkni, belonging to the De- 
mendoff family, has already produced more than 2,800 pounds of 
gold. 
“ After having determined the height of the loftiest peaks, caleu- 
lated the position of the strata, visited the usines of Siberia, and con- 
firmed by experiments the magnetic observations of M. Freycinet, 
Baron Humboldt had the curiosity to push his researches to the Chi- 
nese outposts. ‘The Chinese commandant, informed of his arrival, 
made no opposition to the investigations of the travellers, but only re- 
quired as a condition that they should make him a preliminary visit, 
adding, that he would have made the first advances of politeness if 
he had taken a fancy to visit the Russian territories. Seated in his 
tent, dressed in a suit of silks, and wearing in his cap a long pea- 
cock’s feather, he received them with a gravity altogether amusing, 
and sold them, for a bit of red velvet, a historical work written in the 
language of his country.” 
Another account of Baron Humboldt’s expedition, mentions that it 
was observed by him that it was always on the Asiatic declivity of the 
Ural Mountains that the auriferous sands lie. They contain pieces 
of gold, platina, and chromate of iron united with platina. The an- 
nual produce of these new mines is 6000 kilograms of gold. Mines 
of osmium and iridium in separate beds were discovered by Baron 
Humboldt in these mountains. Crossing the Khirgeese steppe, he 
visited, near the frontiers of Chinese Tartary, the ruins of the an- 
= ee of some or Bolgari, formerly the capital of the Tartar 
- Em the residence of the family of Tamerlane.—V. Y. Eve. 
