380 



SINGULAR GRANITIC FORMS. 



CHAPTER 

 XXVIII. 



Forms of 



granite 



rocks. 



Ural cliain. 



Jasper 

 porphyries. 



remind us of the small volcanic elevations which cover 

 the ]\Ial])ays in South America. Other form.s, more 

 extraordinary still, distinguish the granite roc'ks on 

 the southein declivity of the Altai. These have either 

 the shape of hells or flattened hemispheres, or cones ter- 

 minated often h^' lateral effusions, in the form of low 

 and lengthened walls, as if they had flowed in a melted 

 state from a crevice. I have been particularly struck 

 wit4i the form of a granite hill in the middle of a plain 

 two versts from Bouklitarminsk. It resembles, on a 

 large scale, the pyramid of Caius Cestius, near the Pro- 

 testant burying-gruund at Rome. At Oustkamenogorsk, 

 we saw, rising towards the S.S.E., at the distance of 

 eighty versts, in the middle of the steppe beyond the 

 Irtyclie, a mountain like a fortress flanked with small 

 towers. It got the name of the mountain of the Con- 

 vent fi'om its having the form of a building in ruins." 



This low range does not reach the southern extremity 

 of the Ural, a cliain which, like the Andes, presents a 

 long wall running north and south, with metallic mines 

 on its eastern slope, but terminates abruptly in the me- 

 ridian of Sverinogovloskoi. One of these is called the 

 Round jNIountain, from its remarkable rounded form, and 

 another the Ravennaja Sopka, or, Rhubarb Mountain. 

 The latter is celebrated for its rich jasper porphyries. 

 Tile imperial palaces of St. Petersburg are furnished with 

 candelabra formed of this beautiful material nearly nine 

 feet high ; and a magnificent vase of the same pre- 

 cious material eight and a half feet in diameter, and four 

 feet five inches deep. Tlie block of jasper out of which 

 this dish was cut weighed 28,000 pounds, and, in 1818, 

 was transported in eight days, and l.y 400 workmen, 

 across the roughest mountains, to the works at Koly- 

 vansk. It required three years for cutting the block 

 and i>olishing the vessel. Notwithstanding the moderate 

 wages of the workmen, it cost the establishment 35,000 

 francs, without reckoning the expense of carriage to St. 

 Petersburg, a distance of 700 leagues. 



