ENVIRONS OF BOGOSLOFSK. 
395 
and town of Verkhoturie. M. Rose styles this rock of Verkhoturie a granite with 
occasional crystals of Bucklandite or black epidote, and although we find in our 
note-hook that we considered it also to be a syenite 1 , or what the Italians would call 
“ granitello,” (not unlike a dominant rock in the Malvern Hills of England,) we 
have no doubt that the definition of the learned Prussian is mineralogically more 
correct than our own. It is now, indeed, well known, that rocks having true 
granitic characters (as in the Isle of Anglesea, Norway and many other tracts) 
have enacted exactly the same parts as syenites, greenstones and porphyries in 
piercing, whether by masses or in veins, the pre-existing pakeozoic strata. The 
geological agency therefore of all these rocks is to a great extent the same 2 ; and 
all such comparatively modern granites must therefore be distinguished from the 
more ancient granites which are associated with truly primary rocks. Hence in 
our general map of Russia and the surrounding countries, we group the granites 
on the eastern flank of the Ural chain with the trap rocks of other countries, and 
distinguish them from the antecedent granites of Scandinavia. 
In the annexed view the rock of Verkhoturie is seen to be surmounted by an old 
castle built by the Emperor Ivan Vassilivitch, with its accompanying monastery 
and church. Formerly one of the great keys of Siberia, from whence the Russians 
extended their conquest, colonies and trade, it is now merely regarded as a venerable 
relic of olden times, the bones of one of its monks being visited by numerous 
pilgrims. In the meantime, whilst Verkhoturie is in a dormant state because no 
ores are near it, recesses in the back woods, formerly tenanted only by Voguls and 
wild animals, have been cleared, and have risen into important mining stations, 
teeming with civilization and industry. 
With the exception of the granite and crystalline rocks, the only deposit in the 
environs of Verkhoturie worthy of attention, is a coarse grit used for millstones, 
which lies in horizontal masses to the east of the town, and in a fertile plain. This 
grit, with which our section terminates, is, we believe, of precisely the same tertiary 
age as that of Kaltchedansk (p. 362). 
Environs of Bogoslof sic. —The granitic rocks of Verkhoturie reappear at intervals 
1 To establish a distinction between old and newer granites, some English geologists are disposed to 
attach the word syenite to all granitic rocks which have been intruded through the palaeozoic as well as 
the younger sedimentary strata. It would be well if correct terms were introduced to distinguish the 
modern from the ancient granites. 
2 Rose also speaks of a true syenite upon the Tura, probably the same rock which we saw, but he does 
not describe its relations to the adjacent schists. (‘ Reise nach dem Ural, &c., vol. i. p. 388.) 
