﻿398 Trof. Milne — Across Europe and Asia. 



The iron mines of Tagil lie in a small hill upon the north side 

 of the . town. This hill appears to form a portion of a more or 

 less metalliferous band, running north and south parallel with the 

 Urals. This band consists mainly of felspathic rocks. On the 

 east it is bounded by rocks similar to those of which it is composed, 

 and on the west by a white highly crystalline slightly magnesian 

 limestone. Throughout this band there are isolated patches of 

 limestone slate and magnetic iron-ore. The small hill which I 

 have mentioned is a mass of this ore, and in it are situated the 

 mines or rather quarries of iron. 



The form of this hill is somewhat ellipsoidal. Its height is about 

 280 feet, and its length about two miles. The ore is in many places 

 coloured green, with stains of copper. 



Penetrating through this huge mass of ore are small bands or 

 strips of felsite, which run north and south ; but, with these excep- 

 tions, the remainder is pure magnetite. An east and west section, 

 at right angles to the length of this mass of ore, would seem 

 to indicate that it probably thins out as you descend in depth. 

 The hill is divided into five properties, each of which is worked 

 in large open quarries. The face of one of these quarries upon 

 the S.W. side of the hill is about 150 feet in height, and is 

 worked in a series of horizontal benches or steps. Whilst walking 

 about these quarries, I was much struck with the appearance of 

 many large slickensides. The scratches on some of these were half 

 an inch broad, and long and regular, covering patches two yards 

 square ; in many cases not at all unlike the effects of glaciation. 



Some of these surfaces gave evidence of movements having taken 

 place at different periods. The metalliferous band in which this 

 magnetic iron-ore occurs has a breadth of about two miles ; but if 

 we include isolated patches of ore as indicating the same band, it 

 may in places have a breadth of nearly ten miles. About ten miles 

 to the south a similar deposit has been found, whilst towards the 

 north, for a distance of 230 miles, several large masses have also 

 been met with, some of which, as at Kuschwa and Pawda, are being 

 worked. One of the limestones which I have spoken of as occur- 

 ring in the metalliferous bands has near Tagil been found to contain 

 manganese. This occurs in huge pipes or fissures, which thin out 

 as you descend. 



The valleys and low ground of the whole of this metalliferous 

 district are covered with a considerable thickness of alluvium, in 

 which large lumps, and sometimes even boulders, of magnetite are 

 found. In one j^lace near Tagil this alluvium was 105 feet in 

 thickness. The greater part of it is plastic clay. Where this has 

 been produced from decomposing felspar, it has been used for the 

 manufacture of the bricks required in building furnaces. Very often, 

 however, it contains a certain quantity of lime, which deteriorates 

 its quality. The general colour of this clay is yellow. There are 

 places where I saw the colour considerably intensified, as might be 

 expected from the immense quantity of iron in the neighbourhood. 



