CHAPTER XIY. 
THE URAL MOUNTAINS. 
Introductory Remarks. — General Sketch of the Ural Mountains. — Difficulties opposed 
to their complete exploration. — The colonized or Russian portion of the Chain the 
chief object of the present Work. — Prevalent physical features. — Practicable routes 
and navigable streams. — Zavods or Mines, and their inhabitants. — Maps and Sec- 
tions. — Method of developing our geological views. 
Though the Ural Mountains have been examined during more than a century 
and a quarter, and although many of their rocks and minerals have been described 
by men of science, their true geological structure has not yet been sufficiently 
explained. This statement should not, however, excite surprise. Considering the 
short space which has elapsed since the conquest of Siberia, and up to how recent 
a time these mountain tracts remained in a state of impenetrable forest, inha- 
bited by idolatrous Voguls and Ostiaks upon the north and Mahomedan Bashkirs 
on the south, we ought rather to feel astonishment at the rate with which the re- 
gion has been cleared and civilized through the introduction of European manners 
and mining industry. 
When Peter the Great, with a keen perception of the surest methods ot advan- 
cing his empire, selected the first Demidoff, to explore the iron-ores of these moun- 
tains, he laid the foundation of the great native mineral wealth, which now so 
conspicuously distinguishes Russia from all the surrounding nations. The earliest 
mining establishments or Zavods planted by that great sovereign are still the 
centres of activity, and have served as models after which numerous other works 
have been formed, both by the government and private speculators. 
In the days of Pallas, geology was so little understood (a few gold-mines only 
being known and a great portion of the country unreclaimed) , that the descriptions 
