434 
SECTION ACROSS THE URAL-TAU CONTINUED. 
a long, rugged talus. In these the original structure of sandstone, grit, and even 
conglomerate, is clearly discernible, though the whole mass has been transformed 
from its original condition into crystalline quartz rock, of whitish and pink 
colours, occasionally, indeed, with flakes of mica, and passing into the rock called 
avanturine 1 . In other masses the forms, and even colours of the pebbles and 
coarser grains of sand are quite visible, as well as the planes and joints ot the beds. 
Some fine serrated masses of this rock, which have resisted atmospheric degrada- 
tion, are still in situ, and constitute the peak (Uralskaya sopka) represented in the 
drawing which forms the frontispiece 2 . The openings between these masses 
frequently indicate the faces of the beds, which here, as in the Taganai, are very 
highly inclined (70° to 80°), and produce a broken and serrated outline. 
In descending from the Ural-tau to the drainage of the Miass, bosses of red- 
coloured granite are soon seen protruding, occasionally in veins, through the adja- 
cent mica schist, and extending to the village of Syrostan. The highly altered 
condition of the rocks which form the Ural-tau is therefore well explained , loi 
they are, in truth, encased like a wedge between two zones of plutonic eiuption, 
and the very peaks of the watershed are seen to be merely metamorphosed grit 
and conglomerate. At the village of Syrostan an intrusive junction is observed 
between the granite and mica schist, where the latter rock, usually finely lami- 
nated, is more massive and compact as it approaches the point of contact. The 
mica schist is succeeded by limestone, which followed on its strike a little to the 
north of this spot, is, as before said, a highly saccharoid and white marble, con- 
taining Encrinites, and thus we get another independent proof of the sedimentary 
origin of all these stratified masses. From this point to Miask, the tract may be 
termed the metalliferous or auriferous zone. It is made up, as will be seen by 
reference to the coloured section, of much serpentine with hornblende slates and 
i The Siberian variety of avanturine had never been seen in England in a great polished mass, until 
His Imperial Majesty presented a magnificent vase of it to Mr. Murchison. That beautiful ornament, 
and the porphyry column on which it stands, were extracted from the hills of Bieloretsk and Korgon, a 
dependence of the Altai Mountains. They were polished at the Siberian works of Kolyvan, in the 
distant Government of Tomsk. 
* When the Grand Duke Alexander, the heir to the crown of all the Itussias, visited this part of the 
Ural, His Imperial Highness attained the summit of these peaks, about 2o00 feet above the sea, the last 
500 or 600 feet being very difficult of access. We followed his example, and with one foot dangling in 
Asia and the other in Europe, sang the national anthem, of “ Long live the Emperor” (see Lithograph 
opposite Title-page, and the inscription on the summit, which records the Imperial visit). 
