URAL MOUNTAINS URANIUM. 



761 



town was long the residence of the Swedish 

 monarch, who bore the title of king of Upsal till 

 the tenth century; and the kings of Sweden are 

 still crowned here. Upsal is used by the Swedish 

 geographers as the first meridian, from which they 

 compute their longitude. King Frederick founded 

 here, in 1728, the societas literaria et scientiarum. 



URAL MOUNTAINS (from ural, girdle); a 

 chain of mountains running along the frontier of 

 Asia and Europe, nearly 1500 miles, from the Fro- 

 zen ocean to the Caspian sea, containing the richest 

 veins of metals in Russia. The northern part 

 is called the Verchoturic, or Jugoric mountains. 

 Verchoturi is the name of the height at the source 

 of the Tura (58 N. lat.), where is situated the 

 place of the same name, with 3000 inhabitants, and 

 many iron works, the emporium of the Siberian 

 trade. South of the great ridge of the Ural, the 

 mountains of Guberlinki extend far into the step- 

 pes of the Kirguises. The highest summit of the 

 Ural, the rock of Padwinski, is 6397 feet above the 

 surface of the Caspian sea. Several rivers on the 

 eastern and western declivities of the Ural promote 

 the internal commerce of the government of Perm, 

 which contains 120,000 square miles and 1,143,902 

 inhabitants. The crown has here nine mines and 

 establishments for the manufacture of iron, fifty-one 

 copper mines, a gold washing, and a mint. There 

 are, besides, eighty-one iron and eighteen copper 

 mines belonging to private individuals. The an- 

 nual product amounts to 200,000 poods* of copper, 

 5,500,000 poods of wrought iron, and 8,500,000 

 poods of cast iron. The salt works of the crown 

 yield annually 1,300,000 poods of salt; the private 

 salt works, 6,136,000 poods. Above 120,000 men 

 are employed in the mines. Tin is not found at all 

 in the Ural; but the mountains afford some lead 

 and silver. The platina obtained is considerable. 

 The whole mineral product of the Ural, including 

 the gold of the gold washings, may be estimated at 

 from forty-five to fifty millions of roubles. Perm 

 has also considerable manufactures. Of late the 

 veins of gold have been worked much more exten- 

 sively than before Alexander von Humboldt's visit 

 to the Ural, in 1829, added to the knowledge of its 

 stores.f The gold sands of the Ural were known 

 as early as 1774. They extend over a tract con- 

 taining 36,000 square wersts, and are found both in 



* One pood is equal to 36 pounds 1 ounce 11 drachms; but 

 arming merchants, it is reckoned equal to 36 pounds. 



t The following account is part of a letter froin M. Hum- 

 boldt to M. Anijfo : " We spent a month in visiting the gold 

 <>f Borisovsk, the malachite mines of Goumeselevski, and 

 of Tagilsk, and the washings of gold and platinum. We were 

 astonished at the pepitai (water-worn masses) of gold, from 

 two to three pounds, and even from eighteen to twenty 

 pounds, found a few inches below the turf, where they had lain 

 unknown for ajfes. Th<> position and probable origin of these 

 alluvia, mixed generally with fragments of greenstone, chlorite 

 slate, and serpentine, was one o? the principal objects of this 

 journey. The gold annually procured from the washings 

 amounts to GOOD kil. The discoveries beyond fifty-nine and 

 sixty degrees of latitude become very important. We possess 

 the teeth of fossil elephants enveloped in these alluvia of auri- 

 lerom sand. Their formation, consequent on local irruptions 

 and on levellings, is, perhaps, even posterior to the destruction 

 of the large animals. The amber and the liaiiites. which we 

 discovered oa the eastern side of the Ural, are decidedly more 

 ancient. With the auriferous sand are found grains of cinna- 

 bar, native copper, ceylanites, garnets, little white zircons, as 

 brilliant as diamonds aiiatase, alvite, &c. It is very remarka- 

 ble, that in the middle and northern parts of the Ural, the pla- 

 tinum is found only on the western European side. '1 he rich 

 gold washings of the Uemidov family, at Nijnei-tagilsk, are on 

 the Asiatic side, on the two acclivities of Bartiraya, where the 

 alluvium of Vilkiii alone has already produced more than 2800 

 pounds of gold. The platinum is found about a league to the 

 east of the separation of waters ^ which must not be confounded 

 with the axis of the high summits), on the. European side, near 

 tiie course of the Oulka, at Sukoi Visnin, and at Martian." 



the mountains and on the banks of rivers. Four- 

 teen thousand persons, including 4380 crown pea- 

 sants, are occupied in the washings. The proprie- 

 tors of private gold washings are obliged to pay ten 

 per cent, to the government. Up to 1817, the gold 

 obtained in the Ural did not amount to more than 

 eighteen poods annually. Now it is above two 

 hundred poods. In 1824, three million gold roubles 

 were coined from two hundred poods of gold, of 

 which more than a fourth part belonged to the 

 emperor. The gold mines on the eastern declivity 

 of this chain are said to be much more productive 

 than those on the western. In April, 1825, several 

 pieces of pure gold were found in the mines of Sla- 

 tansk, in the government of Orenburg, the largest 

 of which weighed above sixteen pounds, the mid- 

 dling-sized ones from five to nine pounds. Accord- 

 ing to the investigations made there, the gold is 

 supposed to have been produced by the agency of 

 water, and not by that of fire. The ancient name 

 of the Ural mountains was Monies Hyperborcei, or 

 Mantes Riphcei. 



URAL RIVER (formerly called Jaik, and an- 

 ciently JRhyinnus~) falls, after a course of 2000 

 wersts, or 1330 miles, through several mouths, into 

 the Caspian sea, at Gurjew; Ion. 52 14' E.; lat. 

 47 15' N. It rises twenty-four miles north of 

 Verchouralsk, in Ion. 58 44' E., lat. 54 N. It is 

 shallow in some parts, but abounds in fish, particu- 

 larly the sturgeon, of the spawn of which caviare 

 (q. v.) is made. On the right bank live the Ural 

 Cossacks ; on the left the Kirguises. Among the 

 former appeared, in 1772, the adventurer Pugats- 

 cheff. (q. v.) In consequence of their participa- 

 tion in his enterprise, they lost their privileges. 

 Catharine restored them, but altered the name of 

 Jaik Cossacks, which they had previously borne, to 

 that of Ural Cossacks. The name of the river was 

 also changed into Ural. These Cossacks furnish 

 20,000 men to the Russian army in case of war. 



URANIA; the muse of astronomy. She is 

 generally represented with a crown of stars, in a 

 garment spotted with stars, and holding in her left 

 hand a celestial globe, or a lyre. Some give her 

 also a telescope and a circle. See Muses. 



Urania is likewise the name of the heavenly 

 Venus, or of pure, intellectual love, in contradistinc- 

 tion to that which is merely sensual. The ancient 

 Greek poets also call one of the Oceanides, or sea- 

 nymphs, Urania. 



URANIUM; the name of one of the metals, 

 from o'uy*.vtn (the heavens). We shall first describe 

 its ores, which are two in number ; viz. pitchblende 

 and uranite. 



1. Pitchblende occurs massive, with a columnar 

 or impalpable composition ; fracture conchoidal or 

 uneven ; lustre imperfect metallic ; colour grayish- 

 black, inclining sometimes to iron-black, also to 

 greenish and brownish-black ; streak black, a little 

 shining; opaque; brittle; hardness below feldspar; 

 specific gravity 6-46. According to Klaproth, it 

 consists of 



Protoxide of uranium, 86-50 



Protoxide of iron, -"'<> 



Silex 5-00 



Sulphuretoflead, 6-00 



Alone, before the blow-pipe, it is infusible, but, 

 with borax, melts into a grey scoria. If reduced to 

 powder, it is slowly soluble in nitric acid. It is 

 found chiefly in veins, accompanied by various ores 

 of silver and lead. Its chief localities are Johann- 

 georgenstadt and Schnceberg, in Saxony, and Joa. 



