342 
NORTH URAL OF THE RUSSIAN MINERS. 
from 2000 to 2500 feet, though their outline is diversified by groups which rise 
from 3000 to near 6000 English feet above the sea. 
Throughout that portion of the tract which is situated between Bogoslofsk on 
the north and Kishtymsk on the south, or in reference to the names of separate 
peaks between Ronshakofski Kamen and Jurma, there is but one dominant 
mountain ridge, with low parallel counterforts both on its east and western flanks. 
4o the south, however, of Jurma, the chain branches out into fan-shaped masses. 
The most western of these, comprising several ridges, terminates in a low re- 
gion towards Orenburg, and is to some extent prolonged in the slight undulations 
of the Obschey Sirt. The central masses of this southern Ural may be spoken of 
under two heads ; those which bifurcating from the lofty Iremel range into the 
plateau of Preobrajensk on the west, and into the sharp ridge of Kyrkty and 
Irendyk upon the east ; whilst the Ilmen and its southern extension, the Kara 
Edir-tau, constitute the eastern or flanking ridge of Siberia. 
Enlarging upon the determinations of Hermann, Helmersen and Hoffman, 
Baron Humboldt has seized upon this southern expansion of the Ural, and illus- 
trating it with his usual felicity, has shown how from a single chain in the central 
portion, it passes into a trifurcation which is persistent from 51° to 55 north 
latitude'. Having crossed and recrossed this southern portion, where it is most 
expanded, we think that, whether their mineral constitution or physical features 
he considered, these masses, when viewed in detail, are more numerous. To this 
point, however, we shall subsequently revert. 
In the following remarks we shall first treat of the northern and afterwards of 
the southern portions of the chain which we examined. 
When approached by the usual high road from its western or European flank, 
the North Ural of the Russian miners appears little more than a low hilly ridge, 
for the most part densely wooded ; and although a line of rock appears at intervals, 
the Ural Mountains of the traveller’s imagination are reduced, when they appear 
in sight, to a mere range of mounts, seldom exceeding in apparent height the Vosges 
between Metz and the Rhine. Their real height is, however, more considerable, 
the deception being produced by the traveller having already gradually ascended 
to some altitude above the sea, before he obtains a view of the chain. Those per- 
sons, indeed, who have only passed over it by the route to Ekaterinburg, at the 
1 Asie Centrale, vol. i. p. 433-439. 
