﻿Prof, Milne — Across Europe and Asia, 399 



Part IT.—ne Middle Vrals. 



CoxTEXTS. — Xijni Tagil to Ekaterinburg. — Appearance of the Trals; their age; 

 their geological structure. — The Coal-measures of the Urals and of Moscow.-t- 

 Explanation of the intercalation of beds of limestone. — The land of the Carboni- 

 ferous period in Eussia lay to the "^est. — Coal-fields of Siberia. — Peculiarities in 

 the distribution of the Fauna and Flora of the Urals : their geological bearing. 



IT was the IStli of September when I left Tagil and returned to Ekat- 

 erinburg. The drive back along the flanks of the Urals was even 

 more disagreeable than it had been when coming, and much of the in- 

 terest was lost by repetition. The ponds were frozen, snow fell, and 

 the roads were, without any exaggeration, like ploughed fields which 

 had been frozen, jolting over which both night and day in an open 

 springless carriage by no means enhanced our pleasures. Before I 

 leave these moimtains, I will here give a general statement of my few 

 and imperfect observations as taken from my •'■'omnium gatherum" 

 of fragmentary notes. Some idea of this line of hills — which form 

 more or less a barrier between the two great continents — may have 

 perhaps been gleaned from what I have said concerning my journey 

 across them when first I entered Ekaterinburg, and also when. 

 referring to my journey along their eastern slopes towards 

 Tagil. They woitld appear to be a low undulating line of hills 

 covered almost to their summits with vegetation, rather than that 

 black formidable-looking Alpine range which they might be taken 

 for if we were only to inspect a map of Eussia or Europe. But 

 as the point about which I speak is the place where the road 

 between Perm and Ekaterinburg — the highway between Eussia 

 and Siberia — crosses into Asia, we might, notwithstanding the 

 blackness of the maps, anticipate the truth, and conclude that, 

 if the Urals at any point approximate to gentleness in their 

 contour, it would be most probably there where the gTcat 

 Queen Catherine built her Siberian gateway, the town of Ekaterin- 

 burg. Further to the north, however, the hills, although not pos- 

 sessing any striking gTandeux, are mnch rougher and higher : but 

 nowhere along their whole meridional length of 1250 miles do they 

 anywhere appear as physical features of gTeat importance. Their 

 highest point is only about 6000 feet.' In fact, as a long range of 

 mountains, occupying stich an important position in the divisions of 

 the world, they are rather remarkable for their want of elevation and 

 boldness of outline. However, they are extremely old. The Alps, 

 the Pyrenees, the Apennines, and the Himalayas, appear to have been 

 wrinkled up in Tertiary times : but the Urals were raised before even 

 the strata of these gTeat mountains had been deposited. The period 

 at which they were formed is usually assigned to the close of the 

 Palfeozoic age. before the deposition of the Permian : but from what 

 1 saw and gathered I should be inclined to think that there is a great 

 probability of their being somewhat younger, perhaps post- rather 

 than pre-Permian. This, however, would not materially alter the 

 length of time their heads have been lifted up ag-ainst the weathering 

 influences of time. From the deposition of the Trias down to the 



^ '' The northeru Ural is more considerable, jagged mountain peaks rising to the 

 height of from 5000 to 7000 feet abore the sea." — Ansted's Physical G-eography, p. 82. 



