388 JEKATHARINENBURG. 



with fringes, and hung with silver coins. On the 12th 

 the j reached the estate of Count Polier, at Werchne 

 Mulinsk, where they halted to partake of his hospital it v. 



From Werchne Mulinsk, they journeyed to Jekathari- 

 nenburg, the Count accompanying them. Near Perm 

 they fell in with a party of exiles on the way to Siberia. 

 This party consisted of sixty or eighty women and girls, 

 and as they were not fettered, they were probably ban ' 

 ished for trivial offences. The worst class of criminals 

 were always fettered while on their way to Siberia, being 

 fastened by one hand to a long rope. The party that the 

 travellers overtook was escorted by a band of armed and 

 mounted Bashkirs. 



The postmaster at Malmiisch was a mineralogist, with 

 a taste for anatomy, for around and within his house 

 were the teeth and bones of an immense mammoth, 

 found on the banks of the Wjatka. 



On the 14th the travellers reached the outskirts of the 

 Ural — a series of delicious vallies. When thev left the 

 Neva three weeks before, it was crusted with ice ; now 

 the grass was out, the plants were in full bloom, and the 

 ground was profusely covered with flowers. On the 15th 

 they arrived at Jekatharinenburg. 



Jekatharinenburg was situated among the mountains on 

 the Asiatic side of the Ural ridge. This ridge consisted 

 of several nearty parallel lines, whose highest point rose to 

 the height of nearly five thousand feet. Its direction in 

 the meridian, which was in a line standing perpendicu- 

 larly upon the equator from the pole, reminded Humboldt 

 of a similar situation in a chain of the Andes. The north- 

 ern and central portions of the Ural mountains contained 

 gold and platina, and abounded in minerals of all kinds. 



