399 
Prof. Milne — Across Europe and Asia. 
Part IV. — The Middle Urals. 
Contents. — Nijni Tagil to Ekaterinburg. — Appearance of the Urals ; their age ; 
their geological structure. — The Coal-measures of the Urals and of Moscow. — 
Explanation of the intercalation of beds of limestone. — The land of the Carboni- 
ferous period in Kussia lay to the West. — Coal-fields of Siberia. — Peculiarities in 
the distribution of the Fauna and Flora of the Urals ; their geological bearing. 
I T was the 18tk of September wlien I left Tagil and returned to Ekat- 
erinburg. The drive back along the flanks of the Urals was even 
more disagreeable than it had been when coming, and rauch of the in- 
terest was lost by repetition. The ponds were frozen, snow feil, and 
the roads were, witkout any exaggeration, like ploughed fields which 
had been frozen, jolting over which both night and day in an open 
springless carriage by no nieans enhanced our pleasures. Before I 
leave these mountains, I will here give a general Statement of my few 
and imperfect observations as taken from my “ omnium gatherum ” 
of fragmentary notes. Some idea of this line of hills — which form 
more or less a barrier between the two great continents — may have 
perhaps been gleaned from what I have said concerning my journey 
across them when first I entered Ekaterinburg, and also when 
referring to my journey along their eastern slopes towards 
Tagil. They would appear to be a low undulating line of hills 
covered almost to their summits with Vegetation, ratker than that 
black formidable-looking Alpine ränge which they might be taken 
for if we were only to inspect a map of Russia or Europe. But 
as tbe point about which I speak is the place wkere the road 
between Perm and Ekaterinburg — the highway between Russia 
and Siberia — crosses into Asia, we might, notwithstanding the 
blackness of the maps, anticipate the truth, and conclude that, 
if the Urals at any point approximate to gentleness in their 
contour, it would be most probably there where the great 
Queen Catherine built her Siberian gateway, the town of Ekaterin- 
burg. Further to the north, however, the hills, althougk not pos- 
sessing any striking grandeur, are much rougker and higher ; but 
nowhere along their whole meridional length of 1250 miles do they 
anywhere appear as physical features of great importance. Their 
highest point is only about 6000 feet. 1 In fact, as a long ränge of 
mountains, occupying such an important position in the divisions of 
the world, they are rather remarkable for their want of elevation and 
boldness of outline. However, they are extremely old. The Alps, 
the Pyrenees, the Apennines, and the Himalayas, appear to have been 
wrinkled up in Tertiary times ; but the Urals were raised before even 
the strata of these great mountains had been deposited. The period 
at which they were formed is usually assigned to the close of the 
Palseozoic age, before the deposition of the Permian ; but from what 
I saw and gathered I skould be inclined to think that there is a great 
probability of their being somewhat younger, perhaps post- rather 
than pre-Permian. This, however, would not materially alter the 
length of time their heads have been lifted up against the weathering 
influences of time. From the deposition of the Trias down to the 
1 “ The northern Ural is more considerable, jagged mountain peaks rising to the 
heightof from 6000 to 7000 feet above the sea.” — Ansted’s Physical Geography, p. 82. 
