TRAVERSE OF THE AXIS OF THE URAL. 
359 
accustomed to other mountain chains, for he has now absolutely reached the foot 
of the central ridge of the Ural, in which there are many lofty peaks, and yet not a 
single far-transported block can be detected. 
At Tcheremtsal, twelve versts east of Grobovo, the rocks are found to have par- 
ticipated in the altered character of the chain ; for the low counterfort between 
this station and the river Tchussovaya is composed of shivery, slaty, crystalline 
limestone, in which no stratification is apparent. This stream, so useful in trans- 
porting ores and merchandise from the Ural and Siberia to the Kama, and thence 
to the Volga, becomes navigable near the point where it is traversed by the road 
(north of Bilimbayevsk) . As stated in the introductory pages, it is one of the 
only rivers of the chain with which we are acquainted, which in its origin seems to 
flow through the central ridge. The rocks, amid a depression of which it winds 
obliquely from the uplands, are evidently a fair sample of the structure of the axis 
in this parallel. 
Facilitating our examination on every point by his admirable and clear arrange- 
ments, General Tcheffkine, the chief of the staff of the School of Mines, had 
directed Captain Karpinski to survey the banks in this upper part of the Tchus- 
sovaya previous to our arrival, and this able engineer showed us the specimens of 
each hand of rock on our arrival at Ekaterinburg. This proved the more interest- 
ing to us, as the high road over the ridge offers very little of interest. Proceeding 
from the sources of the river, these rocks consist, according to Karpinski, of— 
1. Bosses or bands of granite, the direction of which is from south-south-east to north-north-west. 2. A 
broad band of schistose chloride rocks, separated from the granite by porphyritic hornstone. 3. Va- 
rieties of schistose, slaty, porphyritic felspar rocks with serpentine. 4. Gneisose and mrcaceous 
schists. 5. Quartz rocks and grits ; on the rivulet Kurganova associated with iron ores, an a 
Makarova with kidney iron ores (hematite), and decomposed felspar. 6. Black, shivery, pyntous, 
slaty schist, f. Whitish-grey and greenish, granitoid greenstone (syenite) . 8. Chloride and quaitzose 
rocks with vein stones. The preceding rocks are found in the course of the stream from south-east to 
north-west. 9- Marble in contact with and in proximity to greenstone. This rock is seen near the 
noint where the river first turns to the north and west. 10. Serpentinous schist and finely laminated 
chloride schist and sandy grauwacke schist, not unlike many Silurian or Devonian beds. 11. Talcose 
Th "wards to Bilimbayevsk before alluded ... on ft. high road, and from the above 
suocs.ioo therefore, the reader may apprehend the ua.ur. of .he whole uucl.us of ft.. part of th, 
Ural, which cannot be well seen without following the gorge of the Tchussovaya. 
Having thus learned, that no strata with organic remains were visible near the 
axis but that all the limestone, sandstone and schists there associated with the 
greenstone, porphyry and other igneous rocks, were highly altered and crystalline, 
i) A Z 
