338 
PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE OF THE URAL. 
of the great naturalist are chiefly to be viewed as vivid portraits of living nature. 
As such, indeed, his observations have well stood the test of time, and small glean- 
ings only have remained for those who followed him. 
Since that time, the Russian miners, learning their first lessons from foreigners, 
have become a well-informed class, independent of extraneous aid, and their di- 
rectors (officers of the Imperial School of Mines) have described the lithological 
and mineral characters of the country, around their respective posts, with great 
fidelity. Some of these works, to which we shall hereafter allude, are illustrated 
b} maps, and for a further acquaintance with them we request our readers to 
consult the instructive volumes of the Mining Corps. Among these authors they 
will not fail to distinguish Colonel Helmersen, for liis determination of the chief 
heights, for his graphic sketch of the general features of the mountain range, as 
contrasted with the remote Altai, and for many geological and lithological distinc- 
tions, made in conjunction with his associate Professor Hoffman 1 . 
In our own day, Humboldt, however, is the individual who has given a cos- 
mical importance to this chain, by showing how, in common with other mountains 
which have, what he terms, a meridian direction, it possesses auriferous and pecu- 
liai metalliferous characters. By his comprehensive general views, the illustrious 
traveller and his enlightened companion, Mr. G. Rose, have also gone far towards 
rendering the task of geologists both light and easy, for they have clearly indicated 
the principal forms of a large portion of these mountains, the direct dependence 
of the metamorphism and mineralization of sedimentary masses upon the intrusion 
of plutonic matter, and have acquainted us minutely with the nature of the cry- 
stalline rocks and simple minerals of the chain. Again, judging from organic 
remains sent to him by the Russian authorities, or brought back by Baron Hum- 
boldt and his associates, M. von Buch had asserted the existence of Silurian and 
carboniferous rocks in the Ural. 
After such icsults, wdiat then, it may be asked, remained to be accomplished ? 
'Ve answer lo identify the broken masses of those mountains with their types 
in other countries to compare them with deposits in the plains of Russia whose 
age w r e had determined — and to produce, if practicable, a general geological view 
and map of the whole chain. 
! We do not here specify all the authors who describe the structure of the Ural, but besides those 
above cited and others (of whom hereafter), we highly esteem the merits of Hermann (Min. Beschr des 
Ural Erzegeb., &c.), Kupffer (Essai d’un Tab. Gdogn. de l’Oural), and Ad. Erman (Reise um die Erde) 
