Humboldt’s account of the gold and platina district of Russia.

The following account is part of a letter from M. Humboldt to M. Arago.—“We spent a month in visiting the gold mines of Borisovsk, the malachite mines of Gumeselevski, and of Tagilsk, and the washings of gold and platinum.

We were astonished at the pepitas (water-worn masses) of gold, from two to three pounds, and even from eighteen to twenty pounds, found a few inches below the turf, where they had lain unknown for ages.

The position and probable origin of these alluvia, mixed generally with fragments of green stone, chlorite slate, and serpentine, was one of the principal objects of this journey.

The gold annually procured from the washings amounts to 6,000 kil.

The discoveries beyond 59 and 60 degrees latitude become very important.

We possess the teeth of fossil elephants enveloped in these alluvia of auriferons sand.

Their formation, consequent on local irruptions and on levelings, is, perhaps, even posterior to the destruction of the large animals.

The amber and the lignites, which we discovered on the eastern side of the Ural, are decidedly more ancient.

With the auriferous sand are found grains of cinnabar, native copper, ceylanites, garnets, little white zircons, as brilliant as diamonds, anatase, alvite, &c. It is very remarkable, that in the middle and northern parts of the Ural, the platinum is found only on the western European side.

The rich gold washings of the Demidov family, at Nijnei-tagilsk, are on the Asiatic side, on the two acclivities of Bartiraya, where the alluvium of Vilkni alone has already produced more than 2,800 lbs. of gold.

The platinum is found about a league to the esst of the separation of waters (which must not be confounded with the axis of the high summits), on the European side, near the course of the Oulka, at Sukoi Visnin, and at Martian. M. Schvetsov, who had the good fortune to study under Berthier, and whose learning and activity have been most useful during our travels in the Ural, discovered chromate of iron, containing grains of platinum, which an able chemist at Catherineburgh, M. Helm, has analyzed.

The washings of platinum at Nijnei-tagilsk are so rich, that 100 puds (about 400 lbs. Russian) of sand afford 30 (sometimes 40) solotniks of platinum, whilst the rich alluvia of gold at Vilkni, and other gold washings on the Asiatie side, do not give more than 1½ or 2 solotniks in 100 puds of sand.

In South America, a very low chain of the Cordilleras, that of Cali, also separates the auriferous and non-platiniferous sand on the eastern declivity, (Popayan), from the sands of the isthmus of the Raspadura of Choco, which are very rich in platinum as well as gold.”