Chap. XIX.] GOLD OF THE UEAL MOUNTAINS. 
457 
fossil quadrupeds as are found in the coarse Drift-gravel of Western Europe. 
The Elephas primigenius or Mammoth, Bos aurochs, Rhinoceros tichorhinus, 
with gigantic Stags, and many other mammalia, were unquestionably cotem- 
Gold-diggings at Zarevo Albxandrofsk. 
a. Ancient rocks, consisting of talc-schist with veins of quartz (the original matrices 
of the gold), concretionary felspar-rocks, greenstone, &c. b. Coarse shingle and gravel, 
about twelve feet thick, in which the great 4 pepita ' was found, c. Hills from which 
the chief debris, b, was derived, d. Pyramid erected to commemorate the visit of the 
Emperor Alexander the First. 
poraneous denizens of Europe and of the Siberian portion of Asia. They appear 
to have been exterminated, if not simultaneously, at least previously to the 
existing conditions of the earth's surface in the northern hemisphere, the Bos 
aurochs being the only one of these huge mammals which, as far as we know, has 
been preserved to our days *. 
a. Auriferous granite in situ. (These rocks contain gold in quartz-veins in the de- 
composing granite called ' Beresite ' by the Russian miners. Herein is the only mine 
in this chain, or in any part of Siberia, which is worked underground ; and, though very 
shallow, it scarcely repays the expenditure.) b. Debris with gold and Mammoth-bones. 
c. Alluvial clay covered by humus and bog-earth. 
This diagram explains the relations of the coarse gold-bearing Drift with Mam- 
moth-bones, as seen at the Berezovsk mines near Ekaterinburg. 
Before we quit the consideration of the Ural Mountains, the reader may be re- 
minded that, throughout the length of 500 miles, the rocks contain the precious 
metal at wide intervals, and in limited patches only. Having indicated the geo- 
logical period when the superficial gold-drift of this region was accumulated, 
* The Bos aurochs was probably saved by hav- tion which befell their associates. This geologi- 
ing inhabited an isolated spot in Western Kussia cal view is fully explained by me, accompanied by 
near the forest of Biela vieja in old Poland, where an excellent account of the Bos aurochs by Pro- 
the herd now lives, having there been locally fessor Owen (' Kussia-in-Europe and the Ural 
exempted from the causes of that great destruc- Mountains,' vol. i. p. 503 et seq.'). 
