ALTAIC MOUNTAINS. 377 



yond this it takes the name of Upper Kentai, and the CiiAPTEit 



Davourian Mountains ; and, lastly, to the north-east it ' 



connects itself with the Jablonnoikhrebet chain, Khing- 

 khan, and the Aldan Mountains, which advance along 

 the Sea of Ochotzk. The mean latitude of its prolongation, Latitude of 

 from east to west, is between 50' and 51° 30'. The Altaic 

 range, properly so called, scarcely occupies seven degrees of 

 longitude ; but the northern part of the mountains, sur- 

 rounding the great mass of elevated land in the interior 

 of Asia, and occupying the space comprised between 48° 

 and 51°, is considered as belonging to this system, be- 

 cause simple names are more easily retained by the 

 memory, and because that of Altai is more known to 

 Europeans by its great metallic richness, which amounts 

 annually to 45,907 troy pounds of silver, and 1246 troy 

 pounds of gold. 



A recent distinguished scientific reviewer furnishes Metalliferona 

 PI 111 ii-i- treasures. 



this summary ot the remarkable metalhierous treasures 



of the Altaic Mountains, much of wliich, however, it will 

 be seen is already exhausted : — " The Altai, properly so 

 called, namely, the Altai Kolyvan of Russian geogra- 

 phers, forms a mass of mountains which advances like a 

 vast promontory to the western extremity of the chains 

 which constitute the Altai system. Here were found 

 the metallic eruptions, the working of which, between 

 1736 and 1745, excited such notice. These mines, how- 

 ^ever, no longer exist ; but at the small town of Kolyva, 

 we find the great establishment for the cutting and po- 

 lishing of the pure granites, jaspers, and porphyries of 

 the Altai. Near this establishment Nekita Demidoflf 

 erected, in 1725. his celebrated copper- works, which, ^.^pp^'^" 

 from the want of fuel, and the necessity of enlarging 

 them for the silver ores afterwards discovered, were 

 transplanted to the confluence of the Barnaoulka and 

 the Obi, where the city of Barnaoul forms the centre 

 of these magnificent inetallurgic establishments. The 

 position of the rich mines of Schlangenberg, Zyriain- 

 ovsk, Riddersk, and Kroukovsk, shows that the argen- 



