486 
GOLD ALLUVIA IN THE EASTERN AND SOUTHERN URAL. 
of Berezovsk, to which we have briefly adverted, we must again refer our readers 
to the many excellent and minute details in the work of M. Rose. Whether in the 
zone, which is most eminently productive of gold (that wdiich ranges by the eastern 
side of Nijny Tagilsk, and is probably the continuation of that of Berezovsk), or in 
the less productive zone nearer to the Ural crest, wdiich extends southwards from 
the west side of Nijny Tagilsk to the west of Neviansk, and includes the works of 
Rudiansk and Verchneivinsk ; or again in the auriferous zone much further to the 
east, — in all these tracts the phaenomena are essentially the same. The allu- 
vium is everywhere a coarse local detritus, varying in thickness from two to ten 
and twelve feet, and usually covered by much stiff clay. The component stony 
fragments in each w r ork necessarily vary, according to the nature of the adjacent 
rocks ; but in almost every case quartz is abundant, generally accompanied by 
pieces of highly crystalline chlorite schist, talc schist or clay slate. In one quarry 
or set of works, fragments of beresite or decomposed granite prevail, in another 
greenstone porphyry, in a third serpentine, in a fourth augite porphyry. Iron 
pyrites appear in one and not in another, but garnets, zircons, magnetic iron ore, 
chromate of iron, specular iron and other iron ores, are, with rare exceptions, com- 
mon to all these accumulations. One of the most remarkable of all these loose 
deposits between Nijny Tagilsk and Ekaterinburg, as illustrating our own views ot 
the nature of the waters which must have been employed in accumulating such 
shingle, is cited by Colonel Helmersen on the left bank of the Neiva and Zavod 
lake of Neviansk. There the detritus of very great thickness occupies ground higher 
than any in the immediate neighbourhood, and is spread out in a direction almost at 
right angles to the little river Neiva, which flows at its foot. It is just such a 
massive pile of detritus as one of those which we have described on the w'est flank 
of the chain at Chrest ovodsvisgensk. The upper layer consists of yellowish red 
clay, with a few rollers only and a little gold, from seven to ten feet thick ; the 
next, of a dark red earthy mass in the upper end of the excavations, seven to ten 
feet ; and in the lower eight to nineteen feet, and spreading out over a breadth of 
320 feet, the whole being auriferous. This mass, observes Colonel Helmersen, is 
so rich in pebbles of white quartz, that in some places it resembles a quartz con- 
glomerate, whilst in other parts are many fragments of red quartz, clay slate, brown 
iron ore, serpentine, talc schiefer and white dolomite. I hat the quartz pebbles are 
the chief auriferous fragments, is placed beyond a doubt, for one quartz block was 
found to contain upwards of four pounds of gold. 
