AXIS OF THE URAL. — KATCHKANAR. 
391 
both to open it out where obstructed by the growth of trees and branches and to 
order guides and horses to meet us from the Imperial Zavod of Turinsk on the 
Siberian side of the chain to which we were proceeding 1 * 3 . 
The country between the great alluvial depression in which these gold mines 
are situated, and the real water-shed of the Ural is featureless. Dense foliage ob- 
structing all lateral view, nothing is seen beneath the feet of the traveller save 
bog and marsh plants, and no vista whatever can be obtained through the dark 
and gloomy forest, in which his horse flounders, amid half-rotten and broken logs, 
occasionally sinking to the saddle flaps in mire. The few points of stone which 
protrude through the detritus and vegetation, are barely sufficient to acquaint him, 
that here, as between Kushvinsk and Serebriansk, the substratum is a chlorite 
schist, which not being of a hard nature, has been worn down into inconspicuous 
rounded slopes. The ascent of these hills is, indeed, so gradual, that our guides 
had some difficulty in persuading us we had reached the summit level (see section, 
PI. II. fig. 5). 
Immediately to the east, however, of the orographical axis, a very different scene 
awaited us. Scarcely had we begun to descend with the waters to the east, when 
turning sharply to the right by a narrow pathway, we were suddenly in a new 
world. A large chaotic assemblage of loose angular blocks lay around us, trom 
amid which rose the magnificent Pirns cembra, towering above all its associates of 
the forests, the rocks being overgrown with pseonies, roses and geraniums. Such 
rocky features alone would have led us to suppose that we were at the foot ot the 
object of our exploration, when in a few minutes the broken and jagged outline 
of the Katchkanar burst upon the sight, under a fine bright sun, and amid the 
1 The Director of the mines of Chresto-vodsvisgensk, M. Graube, a most intelligent Saxon miner, made 
every arrangement for this expedition, consisting of twenty horsemen, and also accompanied us o e 
Katchkanar and bivouacked with ns for the night in an open shed, “ balagan, cons rue e on e mo- 
ment and roofed in with birch bark by our handy Russian attendants, having taken care to send forward 
according to hospitable Uralian custom, a supply of food and beverage. There on the eastern foot 
of the Katchkanar, we met with horses and men sent on from Turinsk who conducted ns to the high 
road between Ekaterinburg and Bogoslofsk, having previously cut away the obstructing boughs along the 
narrow pathway. Lying i the « balagan « before mentioned, with our feet towards a large fire, we may 
remark, that scicely col the smoke defend us from the myriads of mosquitoes of these 
which in the height of the summer overpower the strongest man, and render geological observation diffi. 
cult, even in such gauze masks as we wore. Next morning, bidding adieu to the kind an in gent M. 
_ ■ ' „ „ Katchkanar and passed on to the banks oi the Is 
Graube and his followers from the west, we quitted tl e 
and the Imperial mines of Turinsk. 
3 e 2 
