PHYSIOGRAPHY OF THE REGION 73 



the probable result will be when the necessary field-work is done in 

 Russia. It draws freely on the facts of structure as worked out by the 

 Russian geologists. 



Physiographic Description of the Region 



contrast between central russia and the urals 



From the poor topographic representation of the Ural mountains as 

 given even on our best maps, one is led to think of them as rising sharply 

 from the socalled steppes of Russia in some such form as the Rocky moun- 

 tains loom up west of Denver when one approaches them across the Great 

 plains in Colorado. This however is not the fact. The upland slopes 

 on the plains are found to merge gradually into those of the mountains, 

 so that when one leaves the Volga at Samara (see map, figure 1) to cross 

 the mountains on the trans-Siberian route, he cannot say just when he 

 has reached the Urals. 



The country around Moscow does, indeed, contrast in a most pronounced 

 way with that around Slatoust; the shallow troughs of the valleys, the 

 gentle slopes, the flat uplands, the high state of cultivation, the large farm- 

 houses, and the richer people are all seen on the plains, while in the dis- 

 sected mountains are found deeper troughs, steeper slopes, upland ridges, 

 a lower state of civilization, smaller houses, and poorer people. This 

 marked difference, however, is really nothing more than the usual con- 

 trast between fertile plains, well graded and sufficiently watered, and 

 dissected mountains. The boundary line between these two contrast- 

 ing areas is not definite; each merges into the other. Tlie horizontal 

 strata of the plains become gently inclined, then tilted, and finally, in 

 the body of the Urals, the rocks are folded and faulted. 



CIIA FRA NO WA SE C TION 



On the road between Samara and Ufa we were given the opportunity 

 to walk up to the divide between two tributaries of the Kama river near 

 the little village of Chafranowa. Here the rocks are the Permian and 

 Permo-Triassic or Tartarian series, and are slightly inclined, dipping a 

 little to the west. These beds differ from each other in resistance, and 

 so the harder ones stand out in bolder relief from the softer beds. At 

 this village of Chafranowa there is a broad shelf, less than 50 meters be- 

 low the general upland level, and this shelf is found to correspond to a 

 certain division of the Devonian series (c) ; but when standing on this 

 upland level and extending the same with the eye across to the west, 

 north, and east, it was easy to perceive that this plain beneath the up- 

 land was also present in a good many localities where this division (c) of 

 the Devonian was not to be found. The relation of this broad shelf to the 



