480 
GOLD MINES OF CHRESTOVODSVISGENSK. 
Gold Mines of Chrestovodsvisgensk . — This is the only gold-work of any magnitude 
which fairly lies at the western foot of the Ural chain ; for those which depend 
upon the Zavod of Nijny Tagilsk are, as has already been stated, close to the 
eruptive axis. But even here the relations are on the whole similar to those more 
productive deposits which occur along the eastern side of the axis ; for the alluvia 
are accumulated to the eastern side of the black dolomitic limestone before de- 
scribed, — a rock, as before shown, which is seen to pass into the talcose and 
quartzose schists which constitute the chief mass of the axis of the Ural. Nay, 
more, this gold alluvium also lies between the great metamorphic axis of the Ural 
and the eruptive ridge of Bissersk (see Map) ; so that, in truth, the mines of 
Chrestovodsvisgensk cannot be said to offer an exception to the general con- 
ditions, under which all the gold alluvia on the Siberian side of the chain have 
been formed. Filling the narrow valleys which radiate from the ridge, all watered 
by various small streamlets which fall into the Koiva, the gold shingle is here 
piled up in thick accumulations, which, as you ascend the Adolfski brook to the 
chief mines, are found to increase to a thickness of about forty or fifty feet, covered 
by masses of clay. At these upper works, the overlying detritus is so considerable, 
that in order to avoid the expense of removing it, horizontal galleries are driven 
near the level of the rivulet, and the most auriferous portions of the gravel are 
thus extracted. This detritus, which is nearly all angular and chiefly made up 
of chloritic, talcose and quartzose rocks with some fragments of eruptive rocks, is 
apparently void of limestone or dolomite, thereby showing, that it has been really 
derived from the breaking up of the higher adjacent Uralian slopes upon the east, 
which are essentially composed of such rocks. Thence it has been spread out in 
great mounds, which diminish in importance as they descend into the lower 
grounds, where the alluvium overlaps the edges of the black dolomite or Devonian 
limestone before described. No remains of great pachydermatous quadrupeds 
have been found in this coarse shingle, though the bones of Elks have been detected 
in the overlying clay. 
The gold alluvia of this tract have been rendered conspicuous by having afforded 
specimens of diamonds ; and as some doubt was at first thrown upon the reality of 
the discovery, we think it right to state, that from every inquiry we made upon 
the spot, no sort of suspicion can attach to the evidence. In referring the reader 
to the description of these diamonds in the works of Baron Humboldt and M.Rose, 
it is only necessary to state, that upwards of forty specimens (all of which we saw 
