70 FOEESTEY IN EASTEEN EUSSIA. 



metals have never been found in the Permian debris. In 

 rocks still older — such as the carboniferous conglomerates 

 — there is no trace of gold ; nor in rocks far younger, such 

 as certain tertiary grits. From these, and other reasons 

 equally strong, Sir Roderick Murchison concludes that the 

 Ural chain became auriferous during the most recent dis- 

 turbances by which it was affected, when its highest peaks 

 were thrown up, the present water-shed established, and 

 the greenstone, porphyries, syenitic granites, and other 

 comparatively recent igneous rocks, intruded through the 

 palaeozoic rocks, along its eastern slopes ; in short, that gold 

 was one of the most recent mineral productions anterior to 

 the historic era, and coeval with mammoths and rhino- 

 ceroses. Their bones are seldom detected out of the line of 

 the gold-works ; and the Baskirs regard them with super- 

 stitious respect, saying to the Russian miners, " Take from 

 us our gold if you will ; but, for God's sake, leave us the 

 bones of our ancestors." Along with gigantic quadrupeds 

 are found the remains of the Bos Urus, now the only 

 survivor of this ancient fauna. A question of interest 

 arises from the total absence, on both flanks of the Ural, 

 of erratic blocks, and of any traces of those scratches, 

 groves, and polishings, which are considered, by the advo- 

 cates of the glacial theory, to be proofs of the former 

 existence of glaciers. Its drift is all local and not trans- 

 ported ; and in the northern portion of the chain, between 

 60 and 65° of lat., no glaciers are found on peaks con- 

 stantly covered with snow, and attaining an altitude 

 exceeding that of the highest mountains of the British 

 Isles. This absence of all the phenomena of glacial 

 action seems to exclude the possibility of the lower or flat 

 regions of Russia having been once invested in a cerement 

 of ice. The problem connected with the entombment of 

 mammalian remains in the gold alluvia, as well as in 

 alluvium generally, is difficult of solution, but by whatever 

 means the universal destruction of those great mammals, 

 during, one particular period, may be attempted to be 

 explained, Sir Roderick answers, that it was owing, 



