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URAL MOUNTAINS
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URAL MOUNTAINS , a See also:system of mountains which extends from the See also:Arctic Ocean southwards nearly to the See also:Caspian See also:Sea, and is regarded as separating See also:Europe from See also:Asia. Russians describe them either as Kamen (See also: (67° in the plains of Russia and See also:Siberia). Although usually reckoned to the Northern Urals, the See also:section between 64° and 61° N. has again a wholly distinct character. Here the main chain (or, more correctly, the main See also:water-parting) of the Urals is a See also:succession of plateaus stretching in a north-westerly direction, and dimpled with broad, See also:flat, marshy valleys, rising here and there into isolated dome-shaped, flattened summits, mostly under 3000 ft. (Yang-tump, 62° 43' N., 4170 ft.). The whole region, except the mountain summits, is densely clothed with coniferous forests, See also:birch appearing only occasionally in the south, and even the Scotch pine only in a few valleys. This See also:part of the range is also uninhabited. The See also:Middle Urals, between 61 ° and 55° 30' N. and about 8o m. in breadth, are the best known, as they contain the richest See also:iron, See also:copper and See also:gold mines (Bogoslovsk, Goroblagodatsk and See also:Ekaterinburg Urals). The Denezhkin Kamen in the north (5355 ft.) andthe See also:Tara-tash in the south (2800 ft.) may be considered as marking the limits of this section. Here the orographical structure is still more complicated. In the north (61st to 6oth parallel) there is a succession of chains with a distinct north-eastern trend ; and it still remains an open question whether, for two degrees farther south, the whole of the Bogoslovsk Urals (4795 ft. in the Konzhakovski-Kamen, and from 3000 to 4000 ft. in several other summits) do not consist of chains having the same direction. South of Kachkanar (2885 ft.), i.e. from the 58th to the 56th parallel, the orals assume the See also:appearance of broad swellings woo to 2000 ft. in height, deeply trenched by ravines. These See also:low and See also:ravine-broken plateaus, the higher parts of which can be reached from Russia on a very See also:gentle gradient, have been utilized for centuries as the See also:chief See also:highway to Siberia. The water-parting between the See also:Russian and Siberian See also:rivers is here not more than 1245 ft. above sea-level on the See also:great Russo-Siberian highway (W. of Ekaterinburg). The eastern slope is steeper, but even there Ekaterinburg is only 435 ft. below the water-parting. The valleys have a decidedly south-eastern direction, and such is also the course of the railway from See also:Perm to See also:Tyumen, as soon as it reaches the Siberian slope. The Middle Urals are densely forested. The valleys and See also:lower slopes are covered with a thick See also:sheet of See also:rich humus and have become the site of large and wealthy villages. The mines also support a considerable See also:population. The Southern Urals (55° 30' to 51° N.), instead of being made up of three chains of mountains radiating from See also:Mount Yurma, as was formerly supposed, consist of three parallel chains See also:running north-east and south-west, and therefore constitute a quite independent part of the Ural system. The Urals proper are a low sinuous chain extending due south-west and hardly exceeding 2200 to 2800 ft. in See also:altitude. They slope gently towards the north-west and abruptly towards the south-east, where several See also:short, low spurs (Ilmen, Irenly) rise in the basins of the Miyas and the Ui. In the west a chain, separated from the main range, or Ural-tau, by a See also:longitudinal valley, accompanies it throughout its entire length. This, although pierced by the rivers which rise in the longitudinal valley just mentioned (Ai, Upper Byelaya), nevertheless rises to a much greater height than the main range. Its See also:wild stony See also:crest reaches an extreme altitude of 5230 ft. Farther west, another series of chains reach nearly the same altitudes. The See also:gorges by which the rivers See also:pierce the Devonian limestones on their way towards the lower terraces are most picturesque in the west, where the Urals assume an alpine character. The forests are no longer continuous; the gentle slopes of the hilly tracts are dotted with See also:woods, mostly of See also:deciduous trees, while the hollows contain rich pasture grounds. The whole region, formerly the exclusive See also:abode of the See also:Bashkirs, is being colonized by Russians. Farther south, between the 53rd and 51st parallels, the main range continues in the same direction, and, except when deeply trenched by the rivers, assumes the appearance of a See also:plateau which hardly reaches 1500 ft. It is continued farther south-west (towards the See also:Volga) under the name of Obshchiy Syrt. As a See also:rule, the Urals are not considered to continue south of the great See also:bend of the Ural See also:river, where quite independent ranges of hills, or flat swellings, appear (e.g. Dzhaman-tau, Mugodzhar Hills). It appears, however, that the Mugodzhar Hills may safely be regarded as an actual prolongation of the upheavals which constitute the Urals. These consist of diorites and crystalline slates, and reach their maximum in AIryuk (1885 ft.). A range of heights connects the Mugodzhar Hills with the Ust-Urt plateau (see TRANSCASPIAN REGION). See also:Geology.—The Ural Mountains are no more than the western edge of a broad See also:belt of folding of which the greater part is buried beneath the See also:Tertiary deposits of western Siberia. Throughout the greater portion of the chain a broad See also:strip of granites, diorites, peridotites, gneisses and other crystalline rocks rises directly from the Siberian See also:plain, and is covered towards the west by See also:Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, See also:Permian and Triassic strata, which are thrown into numerous folds parallel to the length of the chain and usually rise to much greater heights than the crystalline zone. In the north, however, folded sedimentary rocks See also:lie to the east as well as to the west of the crystalline See also:axis, and between 6o° 40' and 46° 5o' N. Fedorov distinguishes three zones: (i.) the eastern See also: Even if reduced to sea-level, the See also:average temperatures of the Ural meteorological stations are such as to produce a See also:local deflexion of the isotherms towards the south. The same is true with regard to the limits of See also:distribution of See also:vegetable and See also:animal species. The See also:reindeer, for instance, is met with as far south as the 52nd parallel. The Southern Urals introduce into the Cis-Caspian See also:steppes the flora and fauna of middle Russia. In the distribution of the races of mankind the Urals have played an important part. To the See also:present See also:day the Northern Urals are inhabited by Finnish races (See also:Samoyedes, See also:Syryenians, Voguls and Permians) who have been driven from their former homes by Slav colonization, while the steppes on the slopes of the Southern Urals have continued to be inhabited by the Turkish Bashkirs. The Middle Urals were in the 9th See also:century the abode of the Ugrians, and their See also:land, Bjarmeland or Biarmia (now Perm), was well known to the See also:Byzantine historians for its See also:mineral See also:wealth,—there being at that See also:time a lively intercourse between the Ugrians and the Greeks. Compelled to abandon these regions, they moved (in the 9th century) south along the Ural slopes towards the land of the See also:Khazars, and through the prairies of south-eastern and southern Russia (the Ae$edta of See also:Constantine Porphyrogenitus) towards the See also:Danube and to their present seat—See also:Hungary—leaving but very few memorials behind them in the Northern and Middle Urals.' At present the Urals, especially the Middle and the Southern, are being more and more colonized by Great Russian immigrants, while the Finnish tribes are rapidly melting away. Metallurgy and See also:Mining.—The• mineral wealth of the Urals was known to the Greeks in the 9th century, and afterwards to the Novgorodians, who penetrated there in the 11th century for See also:trade with the Ugrians. When the colonies of See also:Novgorod (See also:Vyatka, Perm) See also:fell under the rule of See also:Moscow, the Russian tsars soon grasped the importance of the Ural mines, and See also:Ivan III. sent out German See also:engineers to explore that region. in 1558 the whole of the present See also:government of Perm was granted by the rulers of Moscow to the See also:brothers Stroganov, who began to establish salt-See also:works and mines for iron and copper. See also:Peter the Great gave a new impulse to the mining See also:industry by See also:founding several iron-works, and from 1745, when gold was first discovered, the Russian colonization of the Urals took a new departure. The colonization was of a See also:double character, being partly See also:free chiefly by Nonconformists in See also:search of religious freedom—and partly compulsory,—the government sending See also:peasant settlers who became See also:serfs at the iron and copper works. Until 1861 all See also:work at the mines was done by serfs belonging either to private persons (the Stroganovs, Demidovs and others) or to the See also:crown. Not only are the Urals very rich in minerals, but the vast areas covered with forests afford an almost inexhaustible See also:supply of cheap See also:fuel for smelting purposes. Thus for a See also:long time the Urals were the chief mining region in Russia. But when coal began to be used for smelting purposes, south Russia generally, and See also:Ekaterinoslav in particular, became the chief iron-producing region. See also:Attention has, however, again been directed to the great mineral wealth locked up in the mountain region, and the last two years of the 19th century witnessed a " See also:boom " in the See also:purchase of iron and gold mines by See also:foreign companies. The chief See also:pig-iron and iron-works are at Nizhniy-Tagilsk, and the See also:principal See also:steel-works at Bogoslovsk. The manufacture of agricultural machinery has increased in the southern Urals, especially at Krasno-ufimsk, and the manufacture of See also:tea-urns has grown in importance at Perm. Gold is met with in the Urals both in See also:veins and in placers; the output increased from about 30,000 oz. in 1883 to three times that amount at the end of the century. The Urals have also rich placers of See also:platinum, often mixed with gold, See also:iridium, See also:osmium and other rare metals, and supply annually some 13,000 Ib, i.e. 95% of all the platinum obtained in the See also:world. See also:Silver, See also:mercury, See also:nickel, See also:zinc and See also:cobalt ores are found. Rich mines of copper are found at Turinsk, Gumishev and other places, yielding as much as 5% of pure copper; nickel is obtained at Revdinsk, and the extraction 'Comp. See also:Moravia and the Madiars, by K. J. See also:Groth ; Zabyelin's See also:History of Russian See also:Life, and the polemics on the subject in Izvestia of the Russ. Geogr. See also:Soc., xix. (1883).of iron chromates has developed. Coal exists in many places on the western slope of the Urals, mainly on the Yaiva river, in the See also:basin of the See also:Kama, and on the Usva (basin of the Chusovaya), and about 500,000 tons are raised annually. Several. beds of coal have been found on the eastern..slope; excellent See also:anthracite exists at See also:Irbit and See also:good coal at Kamyshlov. Sapphires, emeralds beryls, chrysoberyls, tourmalines, aquamarines, See also:topaz, amethysts, See also:rock-crystals, garnets and many kinds of See also:jade, See also:malachite and See also:marble are cut and polished at several stone-cutting works, especially at Ekaterinburg; and See also:diamond-mining may prove successful. Good See also:asbestos is extracted, and See also:pyrites is worked for the manufacture of sulphuric See also:acid Many varieties of mineral See also:waters occur in the Urals, the best being those at See also:Serginsk, Klyuchevsk and Elovsk. (P. A. K.; J. T. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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