408 ASIATIC JOURNEY. 
celebrated deposites at Mourzinsk, in which topaz 
and beryl are found. Near Nijnei-Tagilsk, a coun- 
try which may be compared to Choco in South Ame- 
rica, a mass of platina weighing about 214 pounds 
troy has been found. 
From Jekatherinenburg the travellers proceeded 
by Tioumen to Tobolsk on the Irtisch, and from thence 
by Tara, a steppe or desert of Baraba, which is dread- 
ed on account of the torments caused by the multi- 
tudes of insects belonging to the family of Tzpule, to 
Barnaoul on the banks of the Ob; the picturesque 
lake of Kolyvan; and the rich silver-mines of | 
Schlangenberg, Riddersk, and Zyrianovski, situated 
on the south-western declivity of the Altaic range, 
the highest summit of which is scarcely so elevated 
as the Peak of Teneriffe. The mines of Kolyvan 
produce annually upwards of 49,842 troy pounds. 
Proceeding southward from Riddersk to Oust- 
Kamenogorsk, they passed through Boukhtarminsk 
to the frontier of Chinese Zungaria. They even ob- 
tained permission to cross the frontier, in order to 
visit the Mongol post of Bates, or Khonimailakhou, 
northward of the Lake Dzaisang. Returning from 
this place to Oust- Kamenogorsk, they found the gra- 
nite divided into nearly horizontal beds and overly- 
ing a slate-formation, the strata of which were partly 
inclined at an angle of 85° and partly vertical. 
From Oust-Kamenogorsk they went along the 
steppe of the Middle Horde of the Kirghiz, by Semi- 
polatinsk and Onisk and the lines of the Ichim Cos- 
sacks and Tobol, to reach the southern part of the 
Ural, where, in the vicinity of Miask, in a deposite 
of very small extent and at a depth of a few inches, 
were found three masses of native gold, two of which 
weighed 18:36 and the other 28:36 pounds troy. 
