488 
GOLD MINES SOUTH OF M1ASK. 
Gold Mines South of Miask . — Amid the many auriferous tracts along the eastern 
flanks of the Ural, there is no one which has afforded greater wealth, none cer- 
tainly in which such large lumps of gold ore have been found, as in the tract which 
extends from the parallel of Miask to the south of the lake Aushkul, and is in- 
closed between the Ural-tau on the west, and the Ilmen ridge, or its prolongations 
on the east. It is probable that a great portion of this gold ore has been derived 
from the breaking up of quartzose veinstones, which intersected the clay slate and 
chlorite schist of this region ; such veins having, in fact, been partially worked 
to the west of Miask (see Coloured Section, PI. III. fig. 1). The tract to which 
we now particularly invite attention, lies, however, to the south of Miask, and com- 
prehends the very productive mines on the left bank of the river Miass, or in the 
depressions watered by the streamlets Kutaranganka, Iremel, &c. Ascending the 
river Miass along a rich verdant valley, we were much surprised in having a site of 
gold ore pointed out in the very heart of a calcareous basin which occupies this 
portion of the valley, and between eruptive rocks both on the east and west. In 
some parts the cliffs forming the banks of the little stream are seen to be composed 
of hard and altered, but regularly bedded and jointed limestone, in which encri- 
nites are occasionally discernible, and in one of the denudations in this rock the 
gold workings called Verchne-Miask have been established. The detritus here 
may be termed a heavy argillaceous breccia from six to twenty feet thick, in which 
blocks or fragments of limestone, varying from four inches to seven inches, and 
even to occasional slabs from four feet by two, are associated with smaller frag- 
ments of quartz, greenstone, chlorite, schist, &c. ; the whole resting on the dis- 
turbed edges of the limestone. Now the points to which we wish to call attention 
in reference to this detritus, are, first, that the smaller fragments are those which 
have travelled over the little valley on the west, whilst the larger are those of the 
limestone in situ, many of which have merely been re-aggregated on the spot ; and, 
secondly, that gold ore also occurring in the harder and other materials, is also 
said to be disseminated through this limestone 1 . 
The most productive of the gold workings of this tract occur in the undulating 
grounds on the western side of this valley*, where the depressions around several 
1 This fact of gold being diffused through limestone, we mention on the authority of General Anosoff 
and Major Lissenko, who were there with us. 
? M. G. Rose has given a very minute description of the nature of the detritus and subjacent rocks 
at many of these gold works. (See his Special Map of this tract, vol, ii.) 
