﻿390 Prof. Milne — Across Europe and Asia. 



driving there I passed a section of a whitish fissile rock, which was 

 apparently a local representative of the Permian strata. The most 

 noticeable thing at the works was a large steam hammer, said to be 

 the largest in the world. The weight of the head of this instru- 

 ment is 50 tons, but when steam is employed the energy is equiva- 

 lent to three times this amount. The anvil on which this falls is a 

 solid block of cast iron, weighing 667 tons. Up till quite recently 

 all the coal used at these works was brought from England, which 

 naturally involved considerable expense. Now they use their own 

 coal, which is found on both sides of the neighbouring Urals in 

 great abundance, coke only being brought from England. This 

 costs about £5 per ton. It was not until the evening of the 5th 

 September that my carriage, in which I intended to cross the Urals, 

 was engaged. I started in the middle of the night. For the first 

 65 versts (1 verst:=-| of a mile) I saw nothing but a few fir-trees 

 and quantities of birch, after which a white rock began to crop up 

 at various points, especially at those points where we wound round 

 or cut through some undulations which relieved what had hitherto 

 been a melancholy flatness. Right and left of the road, which in 

 many places seemed like a pleasant avenue of birches, were rolling 

 plains of yellow corn and stubble land. These vast expanses of 

 open land, which are chiefly used for the cultivation of corn, clearly 

 indicated the cutting down of large forests, the clearing away of 

 which appears to have influenced the rainfall, and consequently the 

 flow of rivers. This wholesale cutting down of the timber seems to 

 have had its greatest impetus at the time of the Crimean War, when 

 the manufactories of St. Petersburg and other large towns were pre- 

 vented from receiving their accustomed supply of coals from external 

 sources. From these times the use of wood became firmly established, 

 as it was found to be so economical, not only in its first cost, but, 

 among other reasons, from its not burning up the fire bars of their 

 furnaces as coal did. 



The first village of any size that we saw upon the road was 

 Kongar, just before reaching which there was a descent so steep 

 that it necessitated the use of a drag. This I mention, because it 

 never occurred again, the plan being to charge down one hill in 

 order to acquire sufficient momentum to ascend the next. After we 

 had left Kongar, I heard that there was a cave there, which my 

 informant told me was worthy of a visit. We were now in an 

 undulating country, the contours of which were smooth and round. 

 Most of the hills were cultivated to their summits, but some few 

 had a covering of trees. In the evening we found ourselves at the 

 tenth station out of the eighteen we had to pass before this section 

 of our journey, which was as far as Ekaterinburg, would be over. 

 All the following day we were amongst the spurs of the Urals. 

 The hills around us were only of a moderate height. Patches of 

 trees upon their sides, and dotted on the plains and winding valleys 

 at their base, gave to them a rural, park-like aspect. As we ascended, 

 small streams grew smaller, and told us that the water parting 

 which divides the two great continents was near. Large fat magpies, 



