ASIATIC JOURNEY. 407 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
Journey to Asia. 
Brief Account of Humboldt’s Journey to Asia, with a Sketch of the 
Four great Chains of Mountains which intersect the Central Part 
of that Continent. 
No detailed narrative has yet been published of 
Humboldt’s journey to Asiatic Russia ; and the only 
sources of authentic information on the subject are 
to be found in a work lately printed at Paris, un- 
der the title of Fragmens de Géologie et de Clima- 
tologie Asiatiques, par A.de Humboldt, from which 
the following particulars are extracted :— 
This illustrious traveller, accompanied by MM. 
Ehrenberg and Gustavus Rose, embarked at Nijnei- 
Novgorod on the Volga, and descended to Kasan 
and the Tartar ruins of Bolgari. From thence he 
went by Perm to Jekatherinenburg on the Asiatic 
side of the Uralian Mountains,—a vast chain com- 
posed of several ranges running nearly parallel to 
each other, of which the highest summits scarcely 
attain an elevation of 4593 or 4920 feet, but which, 
like the Andes, follows the direction of a meridian, 
from the tertiary deposites in the neighbourhood of 
Lake Aral to the greenstone rocks in the vicinity of 
the Frozen Sea. A month was occupied in visiting 
the central and northern parts of these mountains, 
which abound in alluvial beds containing gold and 
platina, the malachite mines of Goumeschevskol, 
the great magnetic ridge of Blagodad, and the 
