468 
GREAT DISTURBANCES OF THE CHAIN. 
pointed out in the Guberlinslti Hills of the South Ural, where they have precisely 
the strike and direction of the more ancient and adjacent masses of the chain. 
That the Silurian, Devonian and Carboniferous rocks have all been disturbed and 
affected in parallel lines, has been shown in repeated sections, though the directions 
of the very same strata in distant parts of the chain differ from each other in their 
bearing to the extent of 35° or even 40°. Still, however, throughout the North 
Ural, the beds of all the formations, when examined in the same tract, are usually 
parallel to each other from the centre of the chain to its extreme flanks. 
The point, however, to which we would now specially point attention is, that 
not only these older palaeozoic, but even the younger Permian deposits, which in 
many parts lie in horizontal strata against the edges of the upturned older palaeozoic 
rocks, out of whose debris they have been formed, have for considerable distances 
been affected upon lines of elevation parallel to those of more ancient date. In the 
South Ural we have shown, that similar deposits on the opposite flanks of the chain 
have assumed fan-like directions over considerable spaces, and that whilst on the 
European side of the axis, the Silurian, Devonian and Carboniferous rocks trend 
to the west of south, on the east side, or along the valley of the Ural, the carbo- 
niferous formations strike to the east of south. This is observed, however, where 
the mountains spread out into a considerable width, and such aberrations are not 
persistent ; for when viewed on a great scale, the meridian direction is resumed 
near the extreme flanks of the South Ural, and is maintained both in the line of 
eruption of the Kara Edir-tau and the Mugodjar Hills on the east, and in the Gu- 
berlinski and Urkatch Hills on the west, which uniting in Mount Airuk are thus 
seen to constitute one great zone of meridian eruption, as indicated by Humboldt 
(see Map, PL VI.). 
Another feature to which we may now advert is, that on the south-western flank 
of the Russian Ural, or in all the country extending north and south across the 
rivers Sakmara and Ik, and along the north and south fissure of the Bielaya, the 
Permian conglomerates and sandstones range parallel to the bands of carboniferous 
limestone, and have been thrown into positions more or less conformable to them. 
The highly inclined outliers of carboniferous limestone which appear along that 
line, are sharply elevated axes or domes, which in their movements have also 
raised up the Permian deposits, in directions parallel to the outer edge of the Ural 
chain. Thus, whilst the gypseous Permian beds lie in horizontal and undis- 
turbed masses against the chief mass of the carboniferous limestone, which really 
