1 4 2 Proposed Scientific search for [Fe b 



In Thibet, the soil is generally barren, and unimprovable, but the 

 country abounds in mineral wealth. Gold has there been found in 

 great quantities, and frequently very pure ; occurring sometimes in 

 large masses, but generally in irregular veins ; it is also found in the 

 beds of rivers, and often broken off, with every appearance of having 

 been a large mass. Mercury, lead, copper, and iron also abound, as 

 does rock salt. The great want of Thibet, is wood and coal to fuse 

 the metals ; while on the south-western aspect, fuel is superabundant ; 

 and were a good mule road only once established, through any pass in 

 the Himalayan range, those native ores could be brought to Darjeeling, 

 and there smelted to great profit. 



In Russia and Siberia, up to a late period, only two gold mines 

 were known in the government of Tobolsk. But since the discovery 

 of the great deposits in the Ural mountains, the produce of gold and 

 platina has become very great. The cold and mountainous regions of 

 Siberia, are the great depositories of those vast stores of mineral wealth, 

 by which the Russian empire is encircled ; and the alluvial plains rich 

 in gold and platina, are of considerable elevations ; but the Ural 

 mountains, the mines of which are the great modern sources of Russian 

 riches, are in height and appearance not unsimilar to the hills around 

 Darjeeling, varying from 3,000 to 7,000 feet above the level of the 

 sea, and abounding in dark woods suited to the latitude, and in numer- 

 ous streams, having a gloomy but not bare appearance. The Ural 

 mountains, locked in by ridges, with the great Altaic range, divide 

 Europe from Asia, for 1 ,500 miles ; and almost wherever explored, 

 have been found to be metalliferous. In other respects they also 

 resemble the great Himalayan range ; with which, through Tartary 

 and little Thibet, by the great and little Altaic Ranges, they communi- 

 cate, as it has been observed ; that with trifling exceptions all the auri- 

 ferous deposits have occurred in the eastern or Siberian side of the 

 Ural. The body of these Siberian mountains appear to be granite, 

 gneiss, and syenite ; but overlaid, as in the Andes, by transition rocks ; 

 especially porphyry, jasper, and serpentine. 



The most easy source of gold, is of course in a local detritus, such as 

 form the chief origin of the Russian and Brazilian wealths ; which 

 detritus Sir R. J. Murchison describes as a shingle rather than sand ; 

 but on the south-western aspect of the Himalayan range as hitherto 



