that the harmonic principle is not peculiar to the Ural-Altaic, but
only more systematically developed in that than in most other
linguistic families.
Bibliography.—Besides the references given above, the chief general treatises on Ural-Altaic philology are: Winkler, Das Uralaltaische und seine Gruppen (Berlin, 1885); Kellgren, Die Grundzüge der finnischen Sprachen mil Rücksicht auf die Uralaltaischen Sprachstämme (Berlin, 1847); Castrén, Ueber die Ursitze des finnischen Volkes (Helsingfors, 1849); ibid., Syrjaen. Gram., Samojed. Gram., and numerous other comparative grammars, dictionaries and general treatises, chiefly on the Finno-Ugric and Samoyedic groups; W. Thomsen, Ueber den Einfluss der germanischen Sprachen auf die Finnisch-Lappischen (Germ. trans. by Sievers, Halle, 1870—a classical work); Abel Rémusat, Recherches sur les langues Tartares (Paris, 1820); L. Adam, Gram. de la langue Mandchoue (Paris, 1872), and Gram. de la langue Tongouse (Paris, 1874); Böhtlingk, Die Sprache der Jakuten (St Petersburg, 1851); Radloff, Volksliteratur der türkischen Stämme Süd-Sibiriens (St Petersburg, 1872), and “ Remarks on the Codex Comanicus," Bull. St Petersb. Acad. Sc. xxxi. No. 1; Zenker, Gram. der türkischen-tatarischen Sprachen; Schmidt, Mongol. Gram.; Gabelentz, Gram. Mandchoue (Altenburg, 1833); Csink, Hung. Gram. (London, 1853); and Vambéry, Das Türkenvolk (Leipzig, 1885), and Uigurische Sprach-Monumente u. das Kudatkü Bilik (Innsbruck, 1870). (A. H. K.)
URAL MOUNTAINS, a system of mountains which extends from the Arctic Ocean southwards nearly to the Caspian Sea,
and is regarded as separating Europe from Asia. Russians
describe them either as Kameñ (stone) merely, or by the appropriate
name of Poyas (girdle), while the name of Urals (Uraly)—derived
either from the Ostyak urr (chain of mountains) or from
the Turkish aral-tau or oral-tau—has with them become a
generic name for extensive mountain chains. Although the
real structure of the Urals, both orographical and geological, is
imperfectly ascertained, enough is known to warrant the
statement that they have been affected by a series of separate
upheavals, some having a north-western strike and some a
north-eastern, and that they reach their maximum altitudes
along a zone stretching nearly north and south. The composite
nature of the Urals is best seen at the northern and
southern extremities of the system, where the upheavals
assume the character of distinct chains of mountains.
The Paë-khoy or coast ridge (Samoyedic “stony ridge”) is quite independent of the Urals proper, from which it is separated by a marshy tundra, some 30 m. wide. It has a distinct north-north-westerly and north-westerly trend along the shores of the Kara Sea; and, although it is cut through by the Ugrian Strait (Yugorskiyshar), there is no doubt that it is continued in Vaygach Island and Novaya-Zemlya. Its dome-shaped summits, which rise 1000 ft. above the tundra (Vozaipaë, 1312 ft.), are completely destitute of trees, and its stony crags are separated by broad marshy tundras.
The Obdorsk or Northern Urals, which begin within a few miles of the head of Kara Bay (Konstantinov Kameñ, in 68° 30′ N., 1465 ft.), and extend south-west as far as the 64th parallel, form a distinct range, stony and craggy, sloping steeply towards the south-east and gently towards the marshes of European Russia. Its highest elevations (e.g. Khard-yues, 3715 ft., and Paë-yer, 4650 ft.) are on the 66th and 67th parallels. Sometimes the main chain has on the west two or three secondary chains, formed by the upheaval of sedimentary rocks, and it is towards the southern extremity of one of these that the highest peaks of the Urals occur (Sablya, 5135 ft., in 64° 47′ N., and Töll-poz-iz or Murai-chakhl, 5535 ft. in 63° 55′). Dense forests, chiefly fir, pine and larch, clothe the slopes of the mountains and the narrow valleys; but, as the less hospitable latitudes are approached, every species except the larch gradually disappears and the upper limit of vegetation (2400 ft. in the south) rapidly descends till it reaches the very base of the mountains towards the Arctic Circle, and forest vegetation disappears altogether about 65° N. (67° in the plains of Russia and Siberia).
Although usually reckoned to the Northern Urals, the section between 64° and 61° N. has again a wholly distinct character. Here the main chain (or, more correctly, the main water-parting) of the Urals is a succession of plateaus stretching in a north-westerly direction, and dimpled with broad, 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, birch appearing only occasionally in the south, and even the Scotch pine only in a few valleys. This part of the range is also uninhabited.
The Middle Urals, between 61° and 55° 30′ N. and about 80 m. in breadth, are the best known, a.s they contain the richest iron, copper and gold minw (Bogoslovsk, Goroblagodatsk and Ekaterinburg Urals). The Denezhkin Kameñ in the north (5355 ft.) and the 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 60th 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-Kameñ, 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 Urals assume the appearance of broad swellings 1000 to 2000 ft. in height, deeply trenched by ravines. These low and ravine-broken plateaus, the higher parts of which can be reached from Russia on a very gentle gradient, have been utilized for centuries as the chief highway to Siberia. The water-parting between the Russian and Sibierian rivers is here not more than 1245 ft. above sea-level on the 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 Perm to Tyumeñ, as soon as it reaches the Siberian slope. The Middle Urals are densely forested. The valleys and lower slopes are covered with a thick sheet of rich humus and have become the site of large and wealthy villages. The mines also support a considerable population.
The Southern Urals (55° 30′ to 51° N.), instead of being made up of three chains of mountains radiating from Mount Yurma, as was formerly supposed, consist of three parallel chains 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 altitude. They slope gently towards the north-west and abruptly towards the south-east, where several 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 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 wild stony crest reaches an extreme altitude of 5230 ft. Farther west, another series of chains reach nearly the same altitudes. The gorges by which the rivers 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 woods, mostly of deciduous trees, while the hollows contain rich pasture grounds. The whole region, formerly the exclusive abode of the 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 plateau which hardly reaches 1500 ft. It is continued farther south-west (towards the Volga) under the name of Obshchiy Syrt.
As a rule, the Urals are not considered to continue south of the great bend of the Ural 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).
Geology.—The Ural Mountains are no more than the western edge of a broad belt of folding of which the greater part is buried beneath the Tertiary deposits of western Siberia. Throughout the greater portion of the chain a broad strip of granites, diorites, peridotites, gneisses and other crystalline rocks rises directly from the Siberian plain, and is covered towards the west by Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, 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 lie to the east as well as to the west of the crystalline axis, and between 60° 40′ and 46° 50′ N. Fedorov distinguishes three zones: (i.) the eastern hill region, where one finds Mesozoic rocks (Chalk, Jurassic) in the north, and Devonian limestones, porphyrites and quartz-porphyries farther south; in this zone most gold placers are found; (ii.) the central mountain zone consists of various amphibolitic metamorphic slates, and also of syenite and gabbro; granites, gneisses, and occasionally serpentine and porphyrites are found subordinately; and (iii.) the western hilly zone consists chiefly of Carboniferous and Permo-Carboniferous deposits; Middle and Upper Devonian limestones and, occasionally, crystalline slates are found in a few meridional ridges. The crystalline rocks are usually believed to be of Archean age. The Carboniferous deposits—coal-bearing in the Middle and Southern Urals—although appearing at the surface only as a narrow strip in the west Urals, occupy an extensive area, but are concealed by the largely developed Permian deposits, and that series of sediments which must be considered as intermediate between the Carboniferous and the Permian. These latter, described as “Permo-Carbon” by Russian and German geologists, are largely developed
