450 OBLIQUE SECTION BY PREOBRAJENSK ACROSS THE IRENDYK. 
spur, which advances to the river Ural, and is called from its shape Verblnya-gora 
or Camel Hill. This ridgy elevation (about 1000 feet above the sea) is, however, a 
mere southern counterfort of the carboniferous limestone which constitutes the 
Gurmaya (Bashkir) Hills, an extension, indeed, of the remarkable calcareous zone 
which will be mentioned in the next page (see Map). 
At Verchni Ozernaia, and in all the tract extending from thence to the Gur- 
maya Hills, the substrata of gypsum, limestone and sandstone, grit, &c., are all 
unquestionably Permian ; but whether similar rocks occupy the whole of the 
broad depression in which the Ural flows, and extend continuously eastwards to 
Orsk, can only be decided by an accurate and detailed survey. One fact which 
seems established by this traverse across the south end of the Ural is, that no 
palaeozoic rocks of higher antiquity than the carboniferous are exposed in this 
parallel, or in the transverse valley of the Ural (see Map). 
We shall now appeal to sections further to the north, which explain the full de- 
velopment of the South Ural where it rises into mountainous masses. 
Oblique Section from the hills north-east of Orenburg across the plateau of Preo- 
brajensk, and thence over the Irendyk ridge (PL III. figs. 4 and 5). — Although 
we have already described the red Permian strata in the low region adjacent 
to the hilly country under review (p. 147), we take this opportunity of endea- 
vouring to convey to others the impression produced upon ourselves, when on 
quitting the edges of the mountains, we journeyed along the flat and boundless 
steppe towards Orenburg. By looking at the opposite sketch the reader may 
picture to himself our sensations in an intensely sultry day, when, driving across 
the plain, the distant spires of the city first broke upon our sight. Emerging, on 
the contrary, from this parched-up flat expanse, how refreshing was the sight of 
the verdant limestone hills, in the midst of which we passed some delightful days 
at the Katchufka, or summer residence of our distinguished friend General Pe- 
rowski, then Governor-General of this province ! The second lithograph represents 
the view of the Gurmaya Hills before alluded to, and which form, in fact, the 
southern termination of the calcareous chain in this parallel. 
Proceeding from the hospitable retreat of the Katchufka, the dense shade of 
whose evergreen oaks was doubly agreeable to us, after having been scorched in 
the saliferous plains of Illetzkaya Zastcbita (p. 184 etseq.), we now beg our readers 
to accompany us over the South Ural in two transverse sections across a little fre- 
quented portion of the chain, which we were enabled to make through the kindness 
