356 
MINERAL SPRINGS AND ROCKS OF NIJNY SERGINSK. 
These beds, sharply inclined to the east and by north, seemed also to participate, 
like those of Kirghishansk, in some movements dependent on eruptive forces, and 
having heard that the mineral springs of Nijny Serginsk were situated at one stage 
only to the south of the great route, we at once deflected from it to examine the 
rocks in their vicinity. 
Mineral Springs and eruptive Rocks of Nijny Serginsk . — Having repeatedly had 
opportunities, both in the Silurian region of England, in the Rhenish provinces, 
and other parts of Europe, of proving, that mineral springs frequently rise to the 
surface at those points where rocks of igneous or plutonic origin have pierced 
through sedimentary deposits, our drive over rich but wild fields and pastures 
along one of the longitudinal valleys to the west of the chain, to the Zavod or 
mining establishments of Nijny Serginsk 1 , was made in the full conviction, that 
both the origin of the wells and the dislocations we had seen on the sides of the 
high road (one of the first marked disturbances of the subsoil met with between 
that spot and St. Petersburgh) would be similarly explained. We were not disap- 
pointed. In the environs of Nijny Serginsk many of the greater phasnomena 
which we afterwards witnessed in the chief ridge of the Ural, are clearly exhibited 
on a small scale ; and as epitomes are more easily comprehended than extended 
and discursive statements, we will, for the present, interrupt the narrative of the 
first long transverse section of the Ural chain with the following short illustration. 
The flourishing iron-works of Nijny Serginsk are situated on the river Sirga, 
by the barring up of which, an artificial lake about six versts long and one verst 
wide, is made to fill the lower part of one of the numerous wooded valleys, recently 
purchased from the former Bashkir inhabitants, and as yet only partially re- 
claimed. By the aid of this water-power, as in other parts of the Ural, wealth and 
comfort are here diffused through an increasing and prosperous community. 
To the south of the chief Zavod are thick-bedded, quartzose and highly altered 
sandstones, occasionally quartzose rock, but still regularly bedded and alternating 
with schists. These masses strike north-north-east, south-south-west, and dip 25° 
east-south-east. They are evidently a part of the same series of strata seen on 
the high road in the valley near Kirghishansk. At the north end of the village 
1 The ground around this Zavod was bought from the Bashkirs by one of the Demidoff family, and 
sold to the brothers Gubin of Moscow. The population of Nijny Serginsk is 2609, that of the adja- 
cent establishment of Alig.sk 450. They are both iron- works, are admirably managed, and the workmen 
and their families most comfortably lodged, well-fed and neatly dressed. 
