THE SOUTHERN UEALS. 



377 



other plains are composed of detritus stretching for a mean distance of 180 miles, 

 with a depth of about 500 feet, and consisting of rocky masses detached from the 

 Urals, then borne along in both directions, and in the lower grounds reduced to 

 small fragments by the action of water. Such is the quantity that has been thus 

 removed, that were it replaced it would raise the mean altitude of the range by at 

 least 2,000 feet. It is amongst this detritus, levelled on the surface by mosses, 

 peat, and other vegetable growths, that the minerals are found detached from their 

 primitive lodes, and often associated with the fossil remains of the great ruminants. 

 The eastern slopes are the most metalliferous, and the chief mines and métallurgie 

 works are consequently found in Asia. Here also occur the so-called " Mines of 



Fig. 201.— Lower Course of the Ural River. 

 Scale 1 : 2,720,000. 



Eof P 



Eof C 



25 Miles. 



the Chudes," galleries excavated in the live rock, where have been collected 

 numerous copper, but no bronze instruments, the old race of miners having 

 perished before reaching the bronze age properly so called. Some of the natives 

 are traditionally said to be acquainted with other old and very valuable mines ; 

 but they have always refused to reveal them» through fear of being condemned to 

 the miner's hard fate. 



A little north of Zlatoust, in the great mining region, the main range ramifies 



into three branches, spreading southwards like a fan, with broad intervening 



valleys, where rise the Ural and its affluent the Sakmara. In some of its crests, 



such as the Yurma, Taganai, and Urenga, the western spur attains an elevation of 



171 



