144 
COPPER GRITS, ETC. NEAR PERM. 
Whilst the limestones, flagstones and gypsum here described are seen in the 
valleys on the east, the plateaus to the west are occupied by cupriferous grits, 
sandstones and shale, which have been largely excavated at several places. These 
rocks have been particularly developed at the Zavods of Yugofski and Motovi- 
lika, and as we were accompanied through them, as well as the adjacent country, by 
Colonel Volkner, who furnished us with sections and specimens, we at once ac- 
quired an acquaintance with them. These beds, which are pierced by shafts from 
35 to 130 feet deep, consist of thick, flaglike grits of grey and dingy colour, rarely 
ferruginous, sometimes of greenish hue, and occasionally slightly calcareous, with 
courses of red and grey ribboned marl and shale. The ores of copper, chiefly the 
green carbonate, are disseminated at intervals through all the beds, but in this 
district the grits are the most cupriferous. On the whole, the lower beds are more 
grey and dark-coloured, and the upper strata redder. Plants of at least twenty 
species (some of which are figured and will be described in Part III.) diversify the 
series in this locality, and in some ol the lower strata they are so numerous as to 
have given rise to thin seams of coal, occasionally from two to three feet thick. 
Concretions, often cupriferous, six to eight inches long, occur here and there, and 
they have been generally formed around carbonized stems of plants. Both here, 
and in other places which we shall hereafter describe, the copper ores are verv 
frequently found to be arranged in the interstices, and around the fossilized stems 
and branches of plants, exhibiting passages from the common oxide of copper to 
the grey sulphuret or copper pyrites, and occasionally to the finer varieties of 
bright green acicular malachite, mixed with crystals of the blue ore (Kohlen-Salz 
Kupfer) l . 
All these beds are as near as possible horizontal, and consist, we repeat, in 
1 The cupriferous beds contain 2± per cent, of ore only, but from the wide dissemination of the 
ore throughout vast masses, its extraction is profitable, though by no means so much so as in the 
copper works of the Ural, particularly those of M. A. Demidoff, where it is quite in another condition, 
occurring in rich veins and masses amid metamorphic strata, associated with igneous rocks, as will be 
described in Part II. In the districts near Perm, 108 cubic feet of wood are consumed to extract a poud, 
or about 37§ lbs. English, of copper ore ; and the cutting and converting the wood into charcoal cost 
“5 roubles. The poud of copper sells from 32 to 34 roubles, and costs the Government 23, whilst 
individuals whose establishments are not so expensive, produce it at 18 roubles. The Imperial Zavods 
near Perm aflTord 16,000 pouds per annum, and as the net gain per poud is 10 roubles 60 copecks, the 
Government profit is 160,000 roubles, or about £8000 sterling per annum, after defraying all costs, pay of 
officers included. ’ * 
