MIASK. 401 



immense rocks of granite, lying horizontally and in 

 layers, and resting on clay slate, whose layers were 

 partly perpendicular and partly at an angle of eighty- 

 five degrees. It was an important fact for him in his 

 theory of granitic formations. 



From Ustkamenogorsk the travellers proceeded to 

 Miask. They were accompanied by a military escort of 

 Cossacks, which was relieved at the different posts. 

 These posts, which consisted of small fortified villages, 

 at intervals of twenty or thirty versts, extended along 

 the whole boundary, from the frontier of China to the 

 Caspian Sea. Passing through Semipolatinsk, a town of 

 considerable importance in the caravan trade of Central 

 Asia, they followed the course of the Irstysch as far as 

 Omsk. They arrived at Omsk on the 25th, and remained 

 there two days, visiting the Cossack, military, and Asiatic 

 schools, and pursuing their usual researches. They left 

 the river at Omsk, and struck to the westward, across 

 the steppe of Ischim, passing along the frontiers of the 

 Middle Horde of Khirgises, and stopping by the way 

 at Petropaulowsk and Troitsk. On the 3d of Septem- 

 ber they arrived at Miask. 



They spent two weeks at Miask, visiting the gold 

 workings in its vicinity, and making excursions to the 

 Ilmen mountains, and the mines around Slatoust. The 

 truth of Humboldt's theory of the existence of diamonds 

 in the gold-sands of Asia was made known to them 

 while at Miask ; not through any discoveries of their 

 own at this time, but by a messenger from Count Polier. 

 They parted from the Count, who was on his way to his 

 estates, as the reader will remember, on the 1st of July, 

 at Kuschwinsk. He was strongly impressed with the 



