MODE I. MARBLE. 399 



very large dimensions, which seemed to me to be 

 of a single block, of a white and bluish marble, in 

 large veins : only this kind of marble was used in 

 this church. The palace of Orlof has many va- 

 rieties, which are distributed in compartments. 



" I saw no white statuary marble in the Ural 

 mountains; but in that part of the Altaian moun- 

 tains which is traversed by the river Irtish, I in 

 two places saw enormous rocks of marble, per- 

 fectly white and pure, from which large blocks 

 might be hewn. The only use made of it is to 

 convert it into lime, for the service of the for- 

 tresses situated along the Irtish."* 



o 



The celebrated grotto of Kungur is by some 

 said to be in a coarse white marble, by others in 

 alabaster. The village of Kurigur is near the 

 skirts of the Uralian chain, on the confines of 

 Europe and Asia, about fifty miles to the S. S. E. 

 of the city of Perm, in the government of the 

 same name. It is said to be six wersts, or about 

 a league, in length, and half as much in breadth. 

 There are several openings in the roof, so that 

 there is a subterraneous meadow with grass and 

 flowers, a little lake, a rivulet rising from a de- 

 tached rock, which, like another springing from a 

 pool, soon loses itself underground ; with natural 



* 



. 8. 



