The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

THE SOUTHERN HEALS. 877other plainsare composed of detritus stretching for a mean distance of 180 miles,with a depth of about 500 feet, and consisting of rocky masses detached from theUrals, then borne along in both directions, and in the lower grounds reduced tosmall fragments by the action of water.Such is the quantity that has been thusremoved, that were it replaced it would raise the mean altitude of the range by atleast 2,000 feet. It is amongst this detritus, levelled on the surface by mosses,peat, and other vegetable growths, that the minerals are found detached from theirprimitive lodes, and often associated with the fossil remains of the great ruminants.The eastern slopes are the most metalliferous, and the chief mines and metallurgicworks are consequently found in Asia. Here also occur the so-called " Mines ofFig. 201.—Lower Course of the Ural River.Scale 1 : 2.720.000.the Chudes," galleries excavated in the live rock, where have been collectednumerous copper, but no bronze instruments, the old race of miners havingperished before reaching the bronze age properly so called.Some of the nativesare traditionally said to be acquainted with other old and very valuable mines ;but they have always refusedto reveal them, through fear of being condemned tothe miner's hard fate.A little north of Zlatoust, in the great mining region,the main range ramifiesinto three branches, spreading southwards like a fan, with broad interveningvalleys, where rise the Ural and its affluent the Sakmara. In some of its crests,such as the Yurma, Tagana'i, and Urenga, the western spur attains an elevation of