*

In Brazil the component parts of the Dia- | ful magnets, and for the emerald-green mond-sand were observed by Eschwege. mineral called by Dr. Hess Uwarowit. It We give the details below, and he himself does not melt by the blow-pipe, and changes has frequently seen Diamonds in the sub- neither its color nor appearance in heat: stancet that compacts the portions of Quartz. but it is slowly soluble with borax, (when The Oriental Diamond, we find it stated it forms a green glass,) or by pulverized by Ritter, (Erdkunde von Asien :) is found phosphorus. While hot the color is brown, over a large extent of the borders of the table- but it becomes green as it cools. land of the Deccan, from the 14th to the 25th The forests clothing the sides of the Ural degree of latitude. The diamond there is along the way-side consisted of pine, larch, found in a loose, conglomerated sandstone, cedar, with some birch and poplars. of but a few feet, and more or less deep be- Larch and cedar succeed best in the marshy neath the surface, but everywhere overlaid grounds. The underwood of the pine-foby a hard sand-stone. The conglomerate rests was formed of wild roses (rosa canina) consists of grains of Quartz, Hornstone, Jas- in full bloom, with lonicera, xylosteum, aud per, Chalcedony, Cornelian, and Brown iron- juniper, agreeably contrasting their dark ore. Gold is also found there occasionally, green shade with the light hue of the for example, at Sumbhalpoor, but no Platina. birches. These last were a variety of the Of the diamonds of Borneo, we know only white birch, with heart-shaped leaves, and that they are found in gold-sand; and respecting those of Algiers, we possess scarcely any information.

An examination of the minerals found in the gold-sand affording diamond, is of the greatest importance. A comparison of these with the mineralogical specimens of the

no ancient stems were to be seen amongst them. Of shrubs were found the Atragine Alpina with its large white flowers, indicative of a high latitude, though these had been met with also near Katharinenburg; the Hesperis matronalis and Polemonium cæruleum; the latter especially luxuriant in damp spots, and, with the former, ornament. ing the gardens in Germany. On the Kakwa bloomed the Cartusa Mathioli, a German mountain plant, (Alpenpflanze,) and also specimens of the Primula cartusoides, much cultivated in Germany. On the heights of Bogoslowsk grew the German Mespilus cotoneaster near the Siberian Delphinium cuneatum and Corydalis Siberica. In the morasses of the lower ground flourished the German Menyanthes trifoliata, Andromeda polyfolia and calyculata, the Oxycoco minus, and Rubus chamamorus, a dwarf willow, nearly related to the English Salix cotinifolia, (phylicifolia, L.?)

The richness and beauty of the plants contrasted strongly with the poverty of the Fauna. In the search for beasts of the chase, they met with but two or three birds, and occasionally a small hare or squirrel.

No warbling was heard: chiefly small neighboring mountains will give the first indication of the original bed of this valuable hawks (Falco tinnunculus and rufipes;) gem. In the Ural, as in India, Brazil, and Bogoslowsk a finch (Pyrgita melanictera ;) gem. In the Ural, as in India, Brazil, and here and there the Saxicola rubetra; at elsewhere, their proper birth-place is totally but no sparrows nor wagtails, the feathered unknown; but the first offers the strongest hopes of obtaining the requisite information. cosmopolitan accompaniments of man and The opinions of those who have most closely examined the question, agree that the diamond is to be sought in the dolomite, forming the diamond-bearing gold-sand.

Katschkanar is celebrated for its power

Quartz, Clay-slate and Tale, Brown-iron-ore, Iron-mica, Jasper, Chalcedony, Cyanite, Chrysoberyl, Anatase, Gold, and Platina. + Brown-iron-ore.

civilization.

The excessive vegetation of plants abounding in sap, was the cause of an extreme nuisance in the infinite multitude of gnats, inhabitants wear from which defence was impossible. The over their faces nets steeped in birch tar, the smell of which keeps off the intruders; or else they carry on their backs pots filled with decayed wood or smoking birch-fungus, as this

smoke does not affect the eyes. The tra- | had been opened by the uprooting of a tree vellers, however, suffered severely, being blown down by the wind. He collected a' wholly unprepared, and had no resource quantity and brought them for sale to Kabut fast-driving through the current of air, tharinenburg, where they were noticed by (the usual remedy, we would observe, in M. Kokawin, who made further excavations such dilemmas throughout the East ;) but and sent specimens to Petersburg. One of every time they stopped they were subjected these, presented by his Imperial Majesty to to it; and the horses suffered still more M. von Humboldt, is now in the Berlin colthan the men. The peasants employed in lection. These emeralds are dis inguished mending the roads had lighted fires for by their extraordinary size. One in the their protection, and preferred, whenever mountain-specimen collection at St. Petersthey could pause from labor, holding their burg is eight inches long and five inches heads in the thick smoke to suffering the diameter: the chrystals are of a hexagonal attacks of these insects. prism, slightly rounded at the sides, and the extremities flat.

Tatar villages, mostly near streams; the found everywhere in the wells and springs of latter distinguishable from the former by Siberia, which is no slight luxury to the intheir vicinity to small-leafy woods, (contra- habitants during the great heats. distinguished, we must remark, from the cypress and other trees of the kind by their foliage,) that shade their cemetries.

At Omsk begins the steppe of Barabinsk, which reaches from the Irish to the Ob. Far from being dry and hard, as is generally At Tobolsk, where M. von Humboldt imagined, it abounds with small lakes, marshcontinued the astronomical observations es, and rivers flowing into the Om, Irtish, made by Chappe D'Auteroche, Hansteen, and Ob. The soil is sometimes flat and and Erman, he found the inclination of the level as the sea, sometimes covered with magnetic needle 70.55,6; the longitude and vegetation, and birch and poplar; in other latitude exactly as stated by Erman, and places it abounds in salt; some of the lakes calculated by Enke from Chappe's observa- of this steppe are also salt. From the tions. marshiness of the ground it is often bridged over for a long distance. Owing to the jolt. ing of the carriage, and the torture of the incessant stinging of the gnats, one of Fortin's barometers, held in the hand, was broken here.

This town had been originally laid down as the easternmost point of the journey; but the facility and speed of their progress through the northern Ural, induced M. von Humboldt to extend his researches to the Altai, as little had been known of it since the time of Pallas, Renovantz, and Hermann: and the observations of Ledebour and his companions, in all probability referring chiefly to Botany, were still unpublished. The Governor-General strongly supported the scheme, and though the distance was 1500 versts, along the steppe, from Tobolsk to Barnaul, bordering on the Altai, it might be traversed within the time first prescribed for their undertaking, but every moment was precious. They provided themselves with the cap-nets for defence against the gnats; still more needful there than in the Ural. The principal road passes across the steppe, through Zara and Kainsk to Tomsk, with villages at the different stations.

Reaching, July 29th, Kainsk on the Om, about the middle of the steppe, they there, for the first time, heard of the Siberian plague (Pest) raging in the neighboring villages. The medical man who brought the news could afford little information, but it subse. quently appeared that it was an epidemic amongst cattle, attacking also men; and prevailing in the steppe, but never in the mountains. It commences with an indurated swelling in men, forming chiefly on the uncovered parts of the body, as the face, neck, and arms: the disorder is generally ascribed to the stings of insects, and cannot be more particularly accounted for. The swelling proceeds to a black and burning suppuration, and fever and death shortly ensue. By incisions, and cataplasms of salammoniac and tobacco in the commencement, the induration is got rid of, and the cure performed: but if the disorder has made any progress inwardly, it is incurable. Such are the supposed facts of the case.

Along the whole way the soil was excel. lent, being firm and black, cultivated near the villages, and everywhere covered with tall herbage, interspersed only with groups of birch and poplar. Between the Wagai and the Ischen whole tracts were reddened by the Epilobium angustifolium, in full blossom; The travellers took all possible precautions others were blue with Delfinium elatum, to avoid contact with the peasants, even to growing high and compact The fire-red refraining from sleep at the halting-places. Lychnis Chalcedonica was also frequent. In every village they found traces of the ma The peasants in the villages appeared lady; in one four persons, in another six wealthy and our travellers' temporary abode in the village Ribina, on the Ajeff, was strikingly neat and clean. The heat, under an unclouded sky, was considerable, reaching at noon 24 Reaumer; the water of the Irtish was also warm, being 19 near the convent of Abalak, on the 24th July; and a smaller stream, on the 25th, showed a temperature of 20,9. The River Ajeff, on the 21st at noon was 19,4, the air being 24,6; but the water of the wells, owing to the low temperature of the soil, was extremely cold. At Basckshe wa, the first station from Tobolsk, the water of a common well, free from ice, was 2°; of one at Ribini, 2,5. Similar grades were

died in one day; and 500 horses fell victims to the epidemic, so that they could hardly procure the means of continuing their route. In each village they found a small lazaretto for the patients, who were submitted to the above-mentioned treatment; and at the two extremities of each hamlet were smoky fires of dry turf and dung, in order to purify the air. They could not imagine, it seems, how these scattered fumigations should arrest or avert the progress of the disorder: but if it arose from the assigned cause, insects, we should think this not very difficult to divine; and that such was the general impression amongst the natives, appears from the fact

stated immediately afterwards; for the same | to all the modern, all knowledge of these la. expedient was resorted to, doubtless from bors, and of the people engaged in them, has former experience, and as a preventative, in those parts of the Siberian plain which they passed before the disorder was developed there. They lost its traces in quitting the steppe. We must observe, that on the day when they first heard of the epidemic the sky was overcast, with flashes of lightning, but on the following the weather cleared up and became bright and serene.

We are now come to the last chapter, the entrance to the Altai mountains; and the importance of these appears from their produce, consisting principally of silver, of which a larger quantity is obtained here than in any other part of the old world; for, during the last half-century, the annual supply has been 1000 poods, or 69,900 Cologne marks of silver. Besides this, the yearly produce of copper is 12,000 poods, and of lead 20,000 poods. In the year 1836 the comparative produce of gold was,

In the Ural
Altai

Pood. Pound. Sol. Doli.
293 26 40 30
104 15 78

wholly died away. Obscure and broken legends only remain of the richest of the Gol den Mountains, as the Altai are called in Chinese and old Turkish histories; and it was these traditions that, under the reign of Peter the Great, occasioned the repeated military expeditions to the Upper Irtish. They failed in their object then, but they have proved serviceable, in establishing the chain of posts on the line of the Irtish that protect the present labors of the mines.

The actual mining of the Altai owes its existence to Akimfitsch Nikitas Demidoff, the son of him who commenced the Uralian labors; and who was probably induced by the traditions referred to, and the copper-ores brought back by the expeditionary parties above mentioned in 1723, to undertake a closer search. He obtained both the permission and assistance of his government for the task; and, after minor successes, formed in 1728 the first great smelting establishments of Kolywansk and Bjelaja: and though somewhat restricted and inconvenienced from the want of wood, laid the origin of the town of Burnaul in the year 1739. The veins of the Schlangenberg mine, rich in gold and silver, were fully opened in 1726; but The ore from which this silver was ob- the working of these metals was not permitted tained, came for a long time only from a to individuals. Demidoff, therefore, was nesingle mine of the Schlangenberg, 260 versts cessitated to give notice of the fact to the desouth of Barnaul. Many others have since partment of mines; a commission was desbeen opened, near and far, along this gigan-patched which, two years later, in 1746, took tic range; some of which still are worked, and some abandoned. The chief adminis tration of the mines, and their principal smelting-place, is in the town of Barnaul.

Of Platina

118

48 2 7 48

in the Ural Amount of Russian gold, 27884,8 marks: of Platina, 8269,8 marks.

Though the present working of the Altai mines is more recent than the Uralian, and is scarcely above a century old, yet the works assigned generally to the Tchudes, and which are found generally in the Altai even more plentifully than in the Ural, prove the former to have been known from the earliest antiquity. But notwithstanding that the numerous ancient shafts have given rise

possession on account of the crown; and the greatest attention was paid to the works, as also to fortify so valuable a possession against inroads of the nomade Kalmucks and Te. leutes. It was held as a private property of the Imperial House until within these few years, when it was placed among the other possessions of the crown, and under the control of the minister of finance.

We must refer our readers to the volume itself for details of the processes, as well as of the obstacles that impeded these; and quote the produce of the year 1827.

Balance 3,293,907 76

The value of the gold and silver, in assignats, is
The expenses

The relative values of the principal mines | lowing table, as calculated in Cologne in the old and new world appear by the fol- marks:

The annual produce of the Nertschinski District

49,900

55,000

62,000

481,830 Castilian mks.
611,090

the Harz, with Anhalt and Mansfield
the Erzgebirg district of Saxony
Hungary, exclusive of the Bannat,

These fall far short of the Western Hemisphere, as the annual produce

of Bolivia is

of Peru

The Schlangenberg, or Mount of Serpents, so called from the numbers of these reptiles that infest it (the Russian name is Smejowskeja Gora,) stands separate from the surrounding mountains, and extends from N.W. to S.E., about 300 fathoms. The E., S., and S. W. sides are extremely steep; and on the N. it gradually sinks into a plain, on which the little town of Schlangenberg stands, 1,240 feet above the sea; E.N.E. of the mines rises in a cone the highest mountain of the range, the Karaulja Spoka, or Wachtberg, which was once a watch-station against the nomade Kalmucks. It is, according to Ledebour, 2,0016 feet above the sea, and 805 above the level of the town of Schlangenberg. The mountain of this name consists of little more than the soil of the ore itself, which is hornstone bedded in clay.

1,092,920 2,500,000

they passed large; and the peasants appeared wealthy; they are occupied in rearing bees, which produce a fine honey. In this neighborhood M. von Humboldt found the inclination of the needle to be 64: 47: 6.

At the house of M. Nakariakoff, a merchant of Ustkamenogorsk, they found Col. Liancourt, a French emigrant, old, but lively, who had lived 39 years in Siberia, and was commandant of the fortress; and a M. Poppoff, whose conversation they found very interesting from his thorough knowledge of Middle Asia, obtained through extensive commercial connexions in Bochara, Taschkend, &c.: he has, by his exertions, rendered great services to his country.

On the south side of the Katungi mountains are the only known hot-springs of the Altai. They are situate not far from the Kolywansk exhibits, amongst others, a sources of the Berel, in the valley of Rachnew porphyry, and Dr. Rose professes his manowka, which flowing S. W., falls into the ignorance of more than two additional varie-eastern side of the Berel. A few feet from ties that have been worked, viz. that of Elf- two of the warm springs, one of cold water thal, and the antique red porphyry. This flows eastward through the turf into a small last has a light brownish-red ground, and dif- lake. These hot springs bear affinity to fers from that of the Altai, both in the light- those of Gastein and Pfeffer, from the small ness of the color, and in the reddish tinge proportion of fixed substances they contain. which arises from the occasional presence of The resemblance to the former is still greathornblend, and absence of quartz: the par-er, as they rise also from chrystalline slate ticulars are given at some length.

Two versts beyond Riddersk rises a conical hill, called Kruglaja Sopka, the Round Mountain, which is destitute of trees; but, like the surrounding valley, covered with vegetation of such height, and so compact, that it rose above our travellers' heads, and prevented them from perceiving each other when only a few steps apart. Silivum cernuum, Cnicus pratensis, and Epilobium angustifolium, but nearly out of blossom, were especially common there. A specimen of Silivum cernuum, measured by Professor Ehrenberg, was nine feet in height.

At the village of Tscheramschanka they quitted the road they had taken in coming, and followed the valley of the Ulba. The valley grew wider though the mountains on either side were still lofty, not unfrequently resembling gigantic domes. The vegetation is extremely luxuriant: the villages

rock (Schiefergebirge). The water of these Altaian hot springs is without taste or smell; and M. Gebler, who analysed them on the spot and at Barnaul, states they contain but 0,0013 per cent., an extremely small quantity, of fixed substances, consisting only of bituminous carbonated salts and extractive-matter; sulphuric acid,carbonated salts, or other salts, are not to be found in it.

The existence of these hot springs in the Altai is highly interesting, and, as M. von Humboldt has remarked, connected in all probability with the frequent earthquakes of the range these, though not violent, extend to the plain, and to Barnaul and Susunsk. No warm springs are known in the Ural, and earthquakes there are of rare occurrence also.

Sixty versts from Krasnojarsk is the first Chinese station. On their way thither they crossed the Narym, a small stream