494 CRYSTALLINE ROCKS AT KASLINSK AND KISHTYMSK. 
which when laid down here for use are sometimes three to four yards square and 
three or four inches only thick. When treating presently of similar rocks near 
Miask we shall discuss the question ol their origin. 
Travelling over another low and undulating country of black eaith to the west 
of Kanevsk, we traversed the most northerly ol the grounds now frequented by the 
Bashkirs and reached the Zavod of Kaslinsk 1 . From Minsk to Kishtymsk the 
road coasts, as it were, the very edge of the Ural ridge, passing through woodlands 
and by a succession of lakes. In fact, we journeyed somewhat obliquely over a 
succession of dwarfish ridges, thirty to 100 feet high, each in itself a crystalline 
mountain in miniature, and all perfectly parallel to the main crest. If the chief 
heights of the Ural he compared to highly agitated billows, these little flanking 
rid sms may be likened to the last expiring waves which have derived their form 
and structure from the same causes of disturbance. We found them to be, in fact 
the smaller lateral folds of highly metamorphic rocks, whose surfaces, uncovered 
by a single block and in many parts swept clean of all gravel and sand, were 
thoroughly exposed. Some of them are so micaceous that they might pass or pri- 
mary mica schist ; others may almost claim to be associated with gneiss, and with 
them are associated the dominant chloritic and quartzose rocks of these regions. 
Though both eastern and western dips prevailed in the outer folds, a western inc 1 - 
nation is most common in the masses nearest to the mountains, indicating an in- 
version or reversal of the strata,— a phenomenon often observed on both sides ot 
this chain, and other great linear eruptions. In short, we had beneath our feet 
miniature mountains, which a few years ago any geologist would have termed pri- 
marv but which (and we shall soon adduce additional proofs to those derived from 
the North Ural) we cannot but consider as metamorphosed paleozoic strata, or 
masses so associated with them, that we know not how to separate them, in any 
classification founded upon the age or succession of rocks. 
The Zavod of Kishtymsk is placed amid the lower folds of these metamorphic 
rocks and on the edge of a picturesque lake, just where the eruptive rocks rise out 
in great and striking masses from beneath, and explain, as in other places already 
cited, the cause of so much alteration. 
, , , , , . s till at the edge of a wood in which the 
i In approaching Kaslinsk our horses were brought to a stand B . . .. , VT 
in cipp o The sun was setting behind the Ural Moun- 
Bashkirs of the environs had pitched their summer tents, mesu ° . . „ 
, , , . neonle who, after regaling us with their “kumiss or 
tains and gilding the tents of these poor but joyous people, wno, B 5 
mare’s milk, furnished us with fresh horses from their extern 
