They are a mountain system connecting the East European and West Siberian plains. The rows, which are located in parallel, form a certain set of mountain peaks, which is called the Ural Range. By geographical location, its beginning Ural Range takes from Novaya Zemlya, has an extent to the Kara Sea and reaches the space of the Ural-Caspian semi-deserts. It is impossible to observe a uniform picture over the entire length of the ridge. Therefore, this natural phenomenon is rightfully considered unique in its kind. The eastern side of the Ural Mountains became the border between two states, namely between Europe and Asia.
Mountains are considered the oldest around the globe. Each stone carries the burden of history, because it was they who saw the birth of the Earth, the development of civilizations and are silent about those mysteries that have not yet been able to figure out to man. The proof of this great silence are the remains of some stones.
List of mountain peaks of the Chelyabinsk region
The great secret of being is kept in the mountains in Chelyabinsk region. The list looks like this:
- (843 m).
- Big Stone.
- Merry Mountain (750.5 m).
- Second Stone (761.9 m).
- The second hill (1198.9 m).
- Glinka (1065.1 m).
- Naked hill (1175 m).
- Naked Cone (945.5 m).
- Dedurich.
- (724.5 m).
- Evgrafovsky mountains.
- Mount Elaudy (1116 m).
- Pencil (610.9 m).
- Karatash (947.7 m);
- Leaf Mountain (630 m).
- Bear Mountain (797 m).
- Yurma (1003 m).
This is not a complete list of the Chelyabinsk region. The main ones will be presented in this article.
The formation of the Ural ranges
In the eastern side of the Ural Mountains there is a small hillock. Here you can observe the famous Karagay Mountains and the Kuibas Upland. It is these objects that all children study in geography lessons, but, of course, it is much more interesting to see all this majesty live.
Mountains of the Chelyabinsk region western region composed of rocks such as limestone and other very soft rock minerals. The mountains of the western region are rich in all kinds of karst formations. In these places you can observe small funnels and even large caves. These formations appeared thanks to water, it was she who paved these paths in soft limestone rocks. On the banks of the river there is a wonderful miracle of nature - cliffs that are washed by water and blown by the wind. Thanks to this exposure, the breeds have acquired funny shapes, which attracts the attention of people. The height of these cliffs can reach 100 m.
The highest mountain in the Chelyabinsk region
The highest mountain in the Chelyabinsk region is the top of the mountain Peak is called Big Nurgush. The height of the mountain is 1406 m.
In addition to the most in the Chelyabinsk region, there is also the longest ridge - Urenga. Its length is 65 kilometers. In addition, there are 10 peaks on the ridge, the height of which reaches 1000 meters.
Mount Pencil
Surprising is the fact that the oldest mountain on the entire planet, which has the funny name Pencil, is located in the Chelyabinsk region. It is located in the Kusinsky district. For many, this fact is surprising. Chelyabinsk is really a discovery in this area.
Pencil - the oldest mountain in the world
Scientists conducted a large number of studies and came to the conclusion that Mount Pencil (Chelyabinsk region) has an age of more than 4.2 billion years. For example: when compared with the age of the Earth, which is 4.6 billion years old, the mountain is really considered the oldest.
Naturally, at the beginning of its existence, the mountain was much higher. Such a huge amount of time, water, winds, sun, after all, production played a role. The mountain has become much lower, now its height is only 610 meters. Of course, it is a great success that Mount Pencil (Chelyabinsk region) has survived to our times and scientists have the opportunity to study its age. After all, most of the mountains of the same age have long been destroyed, and there is no trace of them.
Unique rocks
The mountain itself is made of incredibly rare and ancient stone. Meet this breed at other points the globe impossible, so the area is unique in its kind. The composition of the rock resembles the Earth's mantle; it is very difficult to meet such a phenomenon. Another interesting fact is that there is no organic matter in the composition, this phenomenon is inherent only in this mountain, therefore it is sometimes considered cosmic. This mountain has become a silent witness to all the events that the long-suffering planet Earth had to endure.
It is also surprising that most residents of the city of Chelyabinsk do not even suspect that they live next to such a monument of nature and history. And even more so, most of the inhabitants of Russia do not know about such a miracle of nature. But information about this mountain is available to everyone, scientists have published all the studies and scientific articles.
Climbing Mount Pencil is a great happiness, because from its height an incredible view opens up, where you can observe other mountains and ranges, the spectacle is worth attention.
Interestingly, there are several versions of the oldest mountains in the world. But most scientists agreed on the Ural Mountains, and it was this version that was accepted as official for everyone. That is why they teach it in schools. The inhabitants of Ancient Russia considered the Ural Mountains to be an ordinary stone, and so they called them. Not so long ago, similar mountains were found in Canada, which in their age practically correspond to Mount Pencil. Canadian scientists hurried to a conclusion and made their peaks the most ancient in the world, but this is their deep delusion.
Mount Cherry
The top of this mountain is also located in the Chelyabinsk region. Namely, in a small village called Vishnevogorsk. The population of the town is small - about 5 thousand people. The northern peak of the mountain is called Karavay. It is located directly in the city. At the foot of the mountain there are mines and adits.
Gorgeous lakes formed in the quarries of the mountain. The only negative phenomenon was that some industries began to use these lakes for waste disposal, which has a very negative impact on the environmental situation. IN winter period on the slopes of the mountain there is a ski resort where you can have a great time.
Mountain Cherry got its name thanks to the wild cherry tree growing at its foot. A huge number of berries are harvested here every year.
Mount Yurma
Mount Yurma (Chelyabinsk region) is located in the northern part of the Southern Urals. Its height is 1003 meters. Some decline can be observed in this part of the central park. The mountain borders on the hilly terrain of the northeastern region of the Chelyabinsk region. The low mountains are characterized by the presence of flat-topped mounds, which are separated by valleys. On the southern slope, Mount Yurma is connected to the northern part of the Big Taganay by the Big Log. Here you can also find mixed forests. Among the trees, maple, linden and mountain elm predominate.
Previously, only broad-leaved forests grew in these places, but today they are replaced by fir taiga.
From the Bashkir language, Yurma is translated as "do not go." This is a kind of warning that climbing a mountain can be dangerous.
High humidity prevails in these places, which forms condensate, as a result of which numerous clouds gather in the valley at dawn.
The mountains of the Chelyabinsk region are unique natural monuments that keep the history of not only Russia, but the entire planet.
Journey to the Cis-Urals and to the western slope of the Ural Mountains was made by schoolchildren of the geographical club "Raimantau" in the first ten days of August. As part of the grant project of the Russian Geographical Society "From Ik to Yaik", the children visited the geographical sights of the capital of Bashkortostan - Ufa, the single mountains Malaya and Bolshaya Serpentine, Shalashovskaya and Kiselevskaya caves.
A large-scale research expedition of Bashkir schoolchildren "From Ik to Yaik" is carried out with the grant support of the Russian Geographical Society. During the year, the children will have to cross the Republic of Bashkortostan from west to east, from the Ik River to the Ural River (the old name is Yaik).
Project objectives:
- study of changes in the landscapes of Bashkortostan;
- expeditionary research along four routes;
- practical study of geography in field conditions;
- accumulation of geographical knowledge about the native land;
- carrying out ecological observations and drawing the attention of the population to the problems of environmental protection;
- organization of active and educational recreation for schoolchildren;
- promotion among young people of a healthy lifestyle and travel around their native land.
The end point of the Pre-Ural route was the city of Asha, located in the Chelyabinsk region, on the border with Bashkortostan. On the way to it, making a transfer to the train in Ufa, young travelers decided to get acquainted with the geography of the largest city of Bashkiria. Their first object was the Museum of Geology and Minerals, in the showcases of which more than three thousand samples of rocks and minerals are collected. By visiting the museum you can get an idea of the richest mineral wealth Bashkortostan, due to the difference geological structure: the western part of the republic has a platform structure, and the eastern part is folded. In the west there are large deposits of oil, gas, coal, rock salt, and in the east - iron ore, zinc, copper and gold. The children most of all liked the most colorful section - "Colored Stones and Minerals", which represents the richest collection of South Ural jaspers. In the museum you can take a picture next to the map of Bashkiria, made of ornamental and semi-precious stones from various deposits of the republic.
After visiting the museum, the expedition members went to the Dudkinskaya ferry across the Ufa River. Previously, there was a busy place here - the Siberian Highway began, and now a boat transports only summer residents through the crossing. Nearby, in the high forested coastal slope of Ufimka, there is the Dudkinskaya adit.
On the way to it, the expedition members examined a section of Permian rocks that make up the Ufa Peninsula - a hilly area between the Belaya and Ufa rivers. The Dudka gypsum mine was developed from the 1920s to the fifties. It is a complex 2500-meter labyrinth of drifts with a vault height of up to 4 meters. In places in the roof you can see natural karst cavities, and not far from the adit, the guys found several karst sinkholes.
Karst processes caused by the dissolution of gypsum with water are one of the main problems of Ufa. Over the past hundred years, more than three hundred karst failures have been recorded on the Ufa Peninsula. In Ufa, cracks often form in houses due to ground movements. The walls of some buildings are pulled together with metal belts, and several high-rise buildings had to be dismantled.
After admiring the coast of the Ufa River and climbing a narrow serpentine, the expedition members went to the city center. Their next goal is to search for the house where the famous polar navigator lived Valerian Ivanovich Albanov, who was born on May 26, 1882 in Ufa, and in 1904 graduated from the St. Petersburg Distant Navigation School. In 1912, he was invited as a navigator to the expedition of Georgy Brusilov on the schooner "Saint Anna", the purpose of which was to pass the Northern Sea Route.
Off the western coast of Yamal, the ship was jammed with ice and began its two-year drift in a north-westerly direction. On April 10, 1914, due to the threat of starvation, part of the crew - 11 people led by the navigator Albanov - left the schooner.
Four months later, only two participants in the transition - Albanov and sailor Konrad managed to break through the hummocky ice and wide open waters to the Franz Josef Land archipelago, the rest died. The fate of the crew that remained on the St. Anna is still unknown. The materials of the Brusilov expedition delivered by Albanov became an important contribution to the geography of the Arctic Ocean, and the navigator's book "To the South, to Franz Josef Land" aroused great interest among readers in Russia and abroad. Valerian Albanov and the schooner "Saint Anna" served as prototypes for navigator Ivan Klimov and the ship "Saint Maria" in Veniamin Kaverin's novel "Two Captains".
And now, the expedition members are on Aksakov Street, near the walls of a one-story house that does not have a number. Having entered a small grocery store on the right side of the building, they found out that this is the same house number 6, in which, as confirmed by Ufa local historians, the famous polar navigator spent his childhood. Unfortunately, there is no plaque about Valerian Albanov on the house, the house does not have the status of a historical and architectural monument and, therefore, can be demolished, like many old houses in the center of Ufa.
The next point of the expedition was the Malaya and Bolshaya Zmeinaya mountains, located next to the Sim River, on the border with the Chelyabinsk region. These lone mountains owe their origin to the ancient Perm Sea, which washed the western slopes of the then young Urals, and are fossil reefs (coral islands) that arose about 300 million years ago.
The most famous Permian reefs are the Sterlitamak shikhans. But there are others in Bashkortostan that are less famous and unexplored. These include the Snake Mountains, located just 70 kilometers east of Ufa. From the Serpentine Mountains, a panorama of the advanced Ural Ranges opens, in front of which, within the city of Asha, another reef mass rises - Lime Mountain, a natural monument of the Chelyabinsk region.
On Mount Malaya Zmeinaya there is a quarry for the extraction of building stone. The expedition members applied to the administration of the enterprise with a request for permission to visit the quarry in order to search for samples of fossil fauna on its territory (explosive work is underway in the quarry). They received permission to explore and an accompanying mountain foreman. Within a few hours, the guys discovered ancient fossils: brachiopods, ammonoids, sea lilies, sponges and corallites. The collected samples of fossil organisms of the early Permian sea basin will become exhibits of the school geographical cabinet-museum. The expedition members also visited Mount Bolshaya Zmeinaya, 280 meters high, the slope of which descends steeply to the Sim River. The mountain, covered with linden forest, remains untouched by human activity. Perhaps it should be preserved as a natural monument?
Sedimentary rocks predominate on the western slopes of the Southern Urals - limestones, dolomites and marls. They are easily soluble in water, and therefore hundreds of caves are located here. The expedition members visited the Kiselevskaya and Shalashovskaya caves, located near the city of Asha. The narrow mountain valley of the Sim River opening outside the city with steep cliffs, from which avalanches descend on the railway passing here in winter, and rockfalls in summer, is figuratively called the "Gate of the Urals".
To get to the Kiselyovskaya cave, you need to climb the steep path up the Kiselevskaya ravine. The entrance to the cave is an inclined well, which you need to descend carefully, but it is better to use rope insurance. The length of the cave is 1260 meters, its largest grotto, the Banquet Hall, reaches a length of more than 100 meters, a width of up to 40, and a ceiling height of 10 meters. The floor in the cave is covered with blocks of limestone, there are many clay areas. In the cave, the guys observed a variety of sinter formations: stalactites, stalagmites, scallops, snow-white calcite streaks, cave pearls.
The entrance to the Shalashovskaya cave is located at the end of a blind karst ravine at the bottom of a large sinkhole, the inlet of which is 10 meters wide and 1.5 meters high. Entering it, the guys crawled through a low passage and ended up in the main gallery, along which a small stream runs, forming small erosion pots filled with water under two-meter ledges. In the main gallery there are small grottoes, the walls and vaults of which are covered with bluish-white sintered calcite formations. The total length of the passages of the Shalashovskaya cave is 225 meters.
After spending the night in the forest near the Shalashovskaya cave, the members of the expedition "From Ik to Yaik" went by train home from Chelyabinsk Asha, located on the eastern border of Bashkortostan, to Tuymazy, located at the western borders of the republic.
The material was prepared by the head of the expedition, geography teacher I.M. Danilko
"On the Chusovaya River"
On the western slope of the Ural Mountains, many mountain rivers and streams run down, which make up the main nutrient branches of the basin of the high-water Kama River. Among them, without a doubt, in terms of originality and beauty, the first place belongs to the Chusovaya River, which dug its rocky bed through rocks and mountains at a distance of several hundred miles. This mountain beauty presents almost insurmountable obstacles for shipping, and therefore it is especially interesting for us to get acquainted with how a simple Russian peasant, who does not even know how to read and write, overcomes this obstacle. Chusovaya takes its beginning a little south of Yekaterinburg, first flows to the north, and then slowly turns to the north-west, until it flows into the Kama River about twenty versts above the city of Perm.
The floating part of Chusovaya, that is, the one along which navigation is possible, stretches for 600 versts. The middle part of this current, which occupies 400 versts, constitutes the most picturesque strip of the Chusovaya and ends just at the point where it passes through the Uralskaya River. Railway. Here Chusovaya finally runs out of the "stones", as the barge haulers call the mountains, and then it already flows along a low-lying plain, where the banks only sometimes rise in high mounds, and, as an exception, they come across those terrible coastal rocks that barge haulers call fighters. The most beautiful part of Chusovaya together and the most dangerous for floating barges: not only barges "fight" among the fighters, but dozens of people die.
Throughout its length, Chusovaya is a completely deserted river, where coastal villages are some kind of exception. True, there are several large factories on Chusovaya, which, of course, enliven the river, but there are too few of them; then there remain the piers from which the barges leave; but the marinas come to life barely for one month a year, during the spring rafting, and for the rest of the time they just fall asleep ...
Meanwhile, Chusovaya was and still is of great importance for the Urals, because more than six million poods of various cargoes are rafted through it every year, up to twenty-five thousand people gather at the Chusovskaya piers alone every spring.
A few years ago, I happened to sail almost the entire Chusovaya with a spring caravan, about which I want to tell you.
In the last days of April, when the snow had already melted in open places and the first pale greenery appeared, I drove along the most terrible road to one of the upper Chusovoy piers. On Chusovaya there was still ice, loose and rusty; blackened snow lay in the forest, but spring was already felt in the air, and waves of warm spring light poured from the sky, forcing the green tendrils of young grass to pour out from under last year's leaves and the branches of birch, mountain ash and bird cherry to swell. Spring in the Urals, as in other northern or mountainous places, comes quickly, all at once, so that, in fact, there is perhaps no such spring as happens in the south: the transition from winter to summer is too abrupt, as is the transition from summer to winter.
At first I did not recognize the familiar pier, which I had visited several times in summer and winter. The usually quiet village, with fifty huts clinging to the steep bank, now looked like a living anthill, where thousands of black dots swarm. In the air here and there was heard "Dubinushka":
Oh, dumbass, let's go!
Razgreen, let's hold on ...
The streets were crowded with barge haulers, so that the carriage could only get through at a walk. Now behind the village, on a low promontory, there were a dozen and a half almost completely finished barges, all that remained was to caul the grooves here and there (holes between the boards) and fill them with pitch. This work was not difficult, and the completely finished barges were only waiting for the moment when the ice broke on the river in order to float to the free spring water.
To Yermolai Antipych, - I said to my coachman.
My wagon stopped at a low, one-story house with large windows overlooking the river. I always loved this low log house, which was so warm and cozy, and between the fuchsias and geraniums that stood on the windows, every time I flashed the pink, smiling face of a little girl, Lyubenka. I must say that we were great friends, and Lyubenka greeted me loudly every time with one phrase: "Dad, dad! The city man has arrived!" Lyubenka was a little over six years old, and she had never been anywhere except her pier, which is why I got the name "city man" from her.
But how? You have even been to Moscow and St. Petersburg,” the girl said, looking at me with distrustful bright eyes. - Of course, the city, but I'm a village ...
The first time Lyubenka heard that I had been to Moscow and St. Petersburg, for a long time she did not want to believe such a miracle: no one from the piers had traveled so far. Moscow and Petersburg can only be seen in picture books. Only when Yermolai Antipych convinced the little daughter that I really was so far away did Lyubenka finally believe and call me a city person. However, from the expression of her eyes, I sometimes noticed that she doubted her city man and gave him a small examination.
Dad is not at home, - said Lyubenka this time. - It's on the shore where the barges are being built...
The city man is tired, Lyubenka, and wants tea.
Now I'll tell Marfa.
Lyubenka had no mother, who died three years ago, and the grouchy, old Marfa ran the whole house. Yermolai Antipych's house was divided into four small, cozy rooms, of which one was occupied by Yermolai Antipych's office, Lyubenka lived in the other, and the last two bore the loud name of the living room and dining room, although they could have been called differently, because in the dining room, for example, there was the owner's bed, and in the living room - his long desk.
By the way, you have arrived, ”Lubenka said, while I kneaded my broken legs in the living room.
Yes so... The river will move soon, it will be a lot of fun. The barks will run past us. Then we will send our caravan ... How! .. They will shoot from the cannon on the shore ... I'm afraid when they shoot from the cannon ...
And when, Lyubenka, will Chusovaya start moving?
They are waiting from hour to hour ... The rafter Ilya drank tea with us yesterday and said that it would be soon. The barges are ready, the barge haulers have gathered... Yes...
The little hostess told me the latest port news, which, for the most part, revolved around the same alloy.
The snows are deep now,” Lyubenka said seriously, “Ilya is afraid that a friendly spring will strike ... Many baroques will be killed in high water.
The girl conveyed only what she herself heard from others, and spoke in the language that they speak only on Chusovaya: “the barge will be killed,” and not broken, because for the rafter Ilya, the bark is not a dead vessel, but a living being: “a friendly spring will strike "," the snow fell deep, "" the river will move," etc.
As soon as Marfa had time to bring in the boiling samovar, the voices of Yermolai Antipych and the rafter Ilya were heard in the hall.
We have a city man, dad, - Lyubenka reported, jumping out to meet her father.
We are glad to have guests, - answered Yermolai Antipych, appearing at the door.
Hello, Ermolai Antipych, - I greeted, shaking the owner's hand. - How are you doing?
What are we doing: we live with Lyubenka like teals in a swamp. Are you joining us for an alloy?
Yes, I would like to sail on a caravan to Perm ...
Well, good deed: there is a place. Here I am, and I will hand you over from hand to hand to Ilya... Where are you, Ilya?
I’m just now, Yermolai Antipych, ”Ilya answered from the entrance,“ I dragged dirt on my boots from the street, I need to wipe it off, otherwise I’ll exhaust your whole room ...
Yes, go, nothing: the dirt is not fat, - it has dried up, lagged behind ...
No, this is no longer the order! How can you... Yes, the young lady will not let me into the upper room another time.
Ilya, the rafter, finally entered the chamber, prayed in the front corner for the icon, and, shaking his brace-cut hair, bowed on all three sides, although there was no one in the chamber except the three of us. He was a small, wizened old man with a dark goatee beard that crawled out over a blue, homespun caftan with a wedge: Ilya's thin, yellowish face did not differ in anything special, with the exception of deeply sunken, unusually lively gray eyes, which looked at everything with a cutting, narrowed look. Ilya's short, crooked legs stepped slowly and firmly, as if some hero was walking; a hunched back and outstretched, long arms made his figure very ugly at first glance, but only those workers who work without sparing themselves have such backs and arms.
Well, you’re living a great life, ”Ilya said, spreading his legs wide and thrusting one hand behind the red woolen belt with which his blue caftan was intercepted.
Hello, Ilya ... Sit down, so you will be a guest.
We sat quietly at tea for an hour; the conversation went on all the time about Chusovaya: when it starts to move, and how high the water will be today, may the friendly spring not strike, etc. - according to the proverb: whoever hurts, he talks about it. Such conversations in the apartment of Yermolai Antipych probably took place Lately day after day, but they never bothered anyone, just as a musician does not get tired of talking about music, a hunter about hunting, an actor about theater. Even Lyubenka did not find these conversations boring and inserted her childish word into them in a thin voice. Ilya loved to "drink tea" and drank glass after glass as long as there was water in the samovar, moreover, like a mouse, he gnawed off his piece of sugar and constantly shook the crumbs from it into his saucer; old Martha was always angry with the old man for his "appetite" for tea, because after the masters she liked to indulge herself near the samovar, and then, if you please, put another one for herself.
What does he only drink in, this your Ilya? grumbled Martha, angrily removing the empty samovar from the table. - Dorval to the master's tea, glad to drink a bucket.
Now we are going ashore, - Yermolai Antipych suggested, turning to me. - You, I suppose, do not know how barges are built?
Here Ilya will tell you everything, as if on his fingers ...
We went out. The entire coast of Chusovaya was crowded with barge haulers; on the promontory, where there were shops and completely ready barges, people were stirring like a living heap of ants. It was half a verst from Yermolai Antipych's house to the cape, and we walked all the time between the living walls. For the time of rafting on the Chusovoy piers, people are recruited from all sides: from the nearest districts of the Perm province, from Vyatka, Ufa and even Kazan. Some barge haulers come for rafting for a whole thousand miles. Such a long journey into the spring thaw requires five weeks and is extremely difficult to respond to barge haulers: faces baked in the sun with cracked skin, instead of clothes - some tatters, bast shoes on their feet, behind their shoulders - a tattered dirty knapsack, in their hands - a long stick, - By these signs, you can immediately distinguish barge haulers from distant bridges from workers from the pier and nearby factories.
There was a lot of haulers, - Ilya said, when we began to descend under the steep bank. - The starlings will fly in first, and after them the haulers ...
We went down the clay path to the very cape, where along the shore there were about a dozen completely finished barges.
Here are our vessels, ”Ilya lovingly remarked, tapping with his fist on the side of one of the barges, which was still being caulked. - So with their spouts they look into the river ...
The rafter Ilya and barge haulers in general treat the barque as a living creature that has its own advantages and disadvantages, desires and even whims. One barge "likes to turn its bow to the right", another "turns on the move and presses the stern to the shore", the third "famously spreads the river stream", but "naughty under the fighters", etc. An experienced rafter like Ilya sees the advantages and disadvantages of each barge at first glance, while to me they seemed exactly the same ...
The next day, I was walking near the barges, when a general cry went through the entire bank: "The water has gone to profit ..." Crowds of people rushed to the river. Somewhere in the distance there was a faint, muffled noise.
This water goes, - explained Ilya. - It's, apparently, the time for our nurse Chusova to open up ... Look like ice is puffed up! Now it's moving...
The water came quickly; the ice fell behind the coast and gave several cracks. The noise increased, as if a huge animal was crawling along the river, with suppressed hissing and whistling. Soon all the ice stirred and several fresh polynyas formed, as if the ice floes had been torn apart by some strong hand.
The water was drained from the Revdinsky pond, - Yermolai Antipych explained. - Chusovaya sometimes stands for a long time, and spring water can escape under the ice. To break the ice, water is drained from the Revdinsky pond.
The Revdinsky plant is located in the upper reaches of the Chusovaya, and its huge pond serves as the main supply of water for rafting on the river. A huge shaft is usually produced, which stretches along the river for two hundred versts; this is the high water along which the spring caravans are rafted.
An hour later, the picture of the pier changed completely, as if everything around came to life at once with a loud voice and a cheerful spring noise. Ice floes of various shapes floated along the river in a long line: some were yellow from spring ice, others were definitely eaten away by worms. On inversions, they collided and climbed one on top of the other, forming ice jams; the ice pressed especially hard on the cape where the barges were; ice floes, as if alive, crawled out onto the sand and crumbled here as sparkling ice crystals and white snow powder. A stream of cold blew in the air, and the forest standing on Chusovaya made a muffled noise. From somewhere came crows, which, with restless cawing, flew from ice floe to ice floe.
Well, now we have the hottest work, just have time to get better, - said Yermolai Antipych. - Tomorrow we need to lower all the barges into the water and load them in three days. Every hour is precious! After all, each barge needs to be loaded with a load of fifteen thousand pounds ... Some marinas have their own harbors, well, they manage to load them in advance, but we have to load directly in the river.
The whole pier took on a completely festive look. Everyone dressed up in the best dress anyone had. The pristan peasants dressed up in new cotton shirts and new caftans, bright sundresses and red kerchiefs were full of broadcloths. Only there was nothing to dress up for barge haulers who came to the pier from afar. They probably became even harder from this someone else's holiday.
Oh, rather alloy, - said the gray-haired old man, looking at the river.
And what, grandfather, are you in a hurry?
Yes, how not to hurry, dear ... What is the time now? The day was in vain, - in winter the week is hungry ... How can it be? The arable land does not wait for our brother while we are wallowing along the piers ... Soon there will be Yeremey the harnesser ... Only a lazy plow in the field does not leave for Yeremey ...
Yeremey the harness, that is, May 1, in the life of a plowman is a great day; they discover the summer peasant suffering, on which depends the earnings of the whole year. That is why the newcomer barge haulers-peasants are in a hurry to return home as soon as possible.
The next day there was a "splash" of baroques. Up to two thousand barge haulers gathered on the cape. From the barges to the water were "slugs", that is, thick logs smeared with tar; along these slugs the barge was pushed into the water. Cry and fuss at this important event there were many. On the one hand, the barge was pushed against by "chegens", that is, wooden stakes, and on the other hand, they were held by thick ropes and tackle. A hundred-voiced “Dubinushka” hung in the air, all faces were animated, a loud echo rolled far down the river and echoed resoundingly on the opposite bank. Yermolai Antipych had been here since early morning, because it was necessary to be in time everywhere, to foresee everything, to give the necessary orders everywhere. The cry of the workers and the friendly burlatskaya song on the log - all this for the first time made a deafening impression, as if on a huge fire, where people completely lost their heads and tore themselves in vain in an aimless fuss.
The barge is jammed! .. - a cry of a dozen voices is heard near the pushed barge. - Cheer up your right shoulder ... Evmen, set off the tackle! .. Come on already, dear ones! ..
The rafter Ilya shouted louder than the others, in one shirt running along the barge, which was "stuck", that is, stopped during the descent along the slug. Dozens of voices argue and shout at the top of their lungs; everyone intervenes with his advice, and no one wants to listen. "Left shoulder stuck!" - "No, it's stuck!" - "The gate must be set up, Ilya!" The barge has been moved from the platform on which it was built to the slug, but does not go any further.
Slugs need to be lubricated, timid ...
The matter ended with Ilya cursing all uninvited advisers, he himself climbed under the barge and examined where it was stuck. Several wedges were brought up, and the barge slowly slid down the slug, foaming the water with a wide shaft. Rare ice floes floated along the river, which seemed to be in a hurry to swim away as soon as possible from the general turmoil.
The barge, launched into the water, was immediately brought on a rope to the shops with metals. Several gangways were thrown from shore to side; several hundred barge haulers were already waiting in line to start loading. I climbed up to the fore deck to see how the barge work would go. A healthy peasant with a red beard was in charge all the while the gangplank was being set up; old man Ilya came up to me and, wiping his sweaty forehead with a handkerchief, sat down on some kind of log.
Is this an alloyer? I asked, pointing to the red-haired man.
No, I'm a rafter, and the red-haired man is a water-piper ... I call him Vavil. As soon as the barge was lowered into the water, then the weir should take it upon itself - the whole barge is his. A leak where it seems, the tow will come out of the grooves, water has accumulated on the barge - all this is observed by a water pourer ...
So, the real owner on the barge is a water dispenser, and not a rafter?
Water dispenser, master ... Without his request, no one can enter the barge or get off, because he is responsible for everything. And the rafter is something else: now I have to look after the load, so that they are loaded correctly, otherwise you’ll just kill the barge; then I have to present the barge intact to the very place ... That's my business ...
As soon as the gangway was ready, barge haulers with heavy burdens in their hands moved to the barge in an endless file. Ilya's barge, as the best rafter, was loaded with high-quality iron, that is, the most valuable material that can lose a lot if it gets into the water. Barge haulers, like ants, dragged bundles of various shapes onto the barge; amidst the clatter of hundreds of hauler feet and the sharp clang of loaded iron, it was difficult to hear a human voice. Ilya barely had time to dispose of where and how to put the brought iron; soon regular layings of sheet iron formed near the sides and in the middle of the barge ... The barge slowly sank deeper and deeper: Ilya constantly coped with the measure of draft and estimated the part of the sides that had sunk into the water with the help of a wooden basting, divided into inches.
In general, the work was in full swing. The red, sweaty faces of the barge haulers, grunting and tired movements testified to the hard work that fell to their lot. For an unaccustomed person, two hours of such work is harder than a whole working day somewhere on arable land; to drag an iron strip weighing 3-4 pounds - you need strength, and then skill. Accustomed to such a load, the barge haulers just chuckled, and the peasants, who were on the rafting for the first time, were simply exhausted. Almost a whole science exists on how it is easier to lift such and such a grade of iron, how it is easier to drag it to the barge and how to put it back. An inexperienced worker will first in vain rub his hands on iron until he bleeds, and then he will learn how and what to do.
Now we have porridge brewed for three whole days, ”Yermolai Antipych said when he came to see how Ilya’s barge was being loaded. We will work day and night.
And when to sleep?
Barge haulers will work in shifts; while one shift is working, the other is resting. And we, apparently, are already like that ... If you take a nap for an hour or two a day, you are lucky, otherwise you will wear out sleep on your feet. No, every minute is precious. Let's send a caravan, then we'll have time to rest. Why sleep: there is no time to eat ... Martha brought me lunch to the store; so I ate something on the go: they tear you in all directions.
The load continued for three days, and the work was in full swing at night, by the light of huge fires on the shore. The picture of the pier on such a night was amazing, as if it were a robber's den, where at night they tried to seize what could not be taken during the day.
For me personally, these three days dragged on very slowly, as for a person completely superfluous in this bustle of work. Even walking around and watching the barges being loaded was rather boring, because the same pictures, scenes and conversations were repeated over and over. But on the other hand, on the pier itself, where barge haulers teemed with swarms, there was something to see and hear, and I spent whole days among ragged and hungry people. Someone just was not in this motley, always noisy crowd! People gathered from four provinces, and each brought with him his own dialect, tailoring of dresses, his own peculiarities in habits and character. But there was something in common in this diverse crowd: everyone was gathered here by one force, whose name is need. Tanned faces, rags and rags instead of clothes, and - patches, patches, patches ... It should be noted that only the very last poor people, from the poorest villages and hamlets, go to the spring Chusov rafting: random misfortunes - such as crop failure, drought, fire, animal death and various other peasant misfortunes - they forced the strongest workers in the family to leave the village and sometimes wander for a thousand miles.
When Yermolai Antipych said that he wouldn’t even have time to dine these days, I didn’t believe at first - you never know what is said for a red word - but then I had to believe, because he came home only for two hours a day, and everything else spent time around shops. Thus, Lyubenka and I remained alone and talked for a long time because there was nothing to do, especially in the evenings. It’s so warm and cozy in the room, the samovar grumbles so friendly on the table, various buns and crackers look out of the bread basket so appetizingly - I really didn’t even want to believe that right here, now behind the wall, the most bitter poverty is spreading in a wide wave, which is happy with any moldy crust. Those little conveniences that you usually don’t notice now seemed to me an extraordinary luxury, for which I was simply ashamed: to sit in a warm comfortable room, to have an excellent dinner, tea, a newspaper, warm clothes, when hundreds of people are starving and freezing, when there is, maybe , patients who have nothing to even buy simple rye bread; no, to be warmly dressed, to have a warm room, a good table - this is really the greatest happiness, which people, in most cases, do not know how to appreciate, just as healthy people do not know how to appreciate their health ...
And you know what, - Lyubenka once said when we were sitting at evening tea. “Sometimes I think to myself, will our pier barges really make it to St. Petersburg?”
Probably half will sail to St. Petersburg.
And I can’t believe it: some kind of pristansky barge will suddenly be in St. Petersburg!
Yes, and will go, in all likelihood, for firewood and fences. The honor is not particularly great.
Lyubenka, who never left her pier, formed the most fantastic conception of the capital, as of some kind of magical city, where the streets consist entirely of five-story houses, at night from gas lamps it is as bright as day, at every step there are brilliant shops, at every step Wealthy carriages with well-dressed ladies and men rush along the bridge in a whirlwind, and nowhere is there even the slightest shadow of anything resembling poverty or misery.
In the evenings, when Lyubenka had long been asleep with her dreams of Petersburg, I opened the window and admired for a long time the magnificent picture rolling with a dull roar of Chusovaya, a continuous forest that immediately rose like a green jagged wall on the other side, distant mountains, slightly shrouded in misty haze . The whole pier fell asleep at night with a deadly deep sleep, which was broken only by the rare barking of chained dogs and the dull noise that came from the side of the loaded barges. From there, along with the cold and damp stream of air rising from the river, the resinous smoke of burning fires was drawn. The river was completely cleared of ice, and only occasionally belated ice floes showed up on it as white spots; probably they were sailing from some brisk mountain tributary. Once, when I was sitting in this way at the window and admiring the sleeping pier, a flock of mallard ducks swept through the air with noise and whistle. She could be heard sinking into the water at the opposite bank, and black dots furrowed the dark river stream for a long time, leaving behind them a long, doubling trail. The river broke up, and now no less troublesome work was in full swing along the entire course than on the piers: mallards, pintails, goldeneyes, teals and other representatives of the duck breed hastily built their nests in various secluded places, so that in a few weeks they could swim out to Chusovaya with a whole brood of tiny yellow ducklings. The corncrake was already creaking in the rising sedge, and along the sandbanks one could see waders and snipes running all day long.
Those white nights, which usually happen in the Urals, began; the sky is completely transparent, and a quivering, trembling light pours from the bottomless blue sky, which covers everything with matte silver - the forest, the mountains, and the water.
While the load was going on, the water on Chusovaya subsided almost to the previous level - the shaft released from the Revdinsky pond passed. Spring Chus caravans set off down this rampart, which stretches along the river for two hundred versts; for this second, most important flood, water from the Revdinsky pond is released sometimes within two days. The water in the river rises several arshins; but caravans can sail down only at a certain height of such a flood: it must be above the summer water level on Chusovaya from 2 1/4 to 3 arshins. If the water is lower, then the caravans are in danger of becoming shallow; if higher, the barges run the risk of crashing near the fighters. It is understandable, therefore, with what impatience at the piers they are waiting for the second shaft: the entire success of the rafting depends on it ...
Water is coming ... Water! .. - it flashed along the street early in the morning, when I was still sleeping.
The whole marina gathered on the shore. The most ancient, half-blind old men and old women crawled out in order to see at least with one eye how the caravan would "roll off" from the pier. Ice drift and caravan dump - two great holidays at the pier for the old and the small. Everything that is alive and has even the slightest opportunity to move, everything to the last person crawls ashore; crippled and crippled people appear from somewhere: one had his leg crushed under the load of a heavy iron scream, the other had his arm cut with tackle, the third does not control either his arms or legs from rheumatism, obtained during the shooting of shallow barges. For these unfortunate invalids of the Chusovoy rafting, every ice drift and dump only once again reminds them of their misfortune, but they still jostle on the shore: "If you want to chat with barge haulers for an hour, it’s easier on your soul." Summer and winter are long, they still have time to sit and lie down in the huts.
Nona water is the most measured, - Ilya said, examining his completely finished barge. - Let's go a little.
Don't think ahead, Ilya, - the red-haired waterpipe stopped, generally distinguished by a very "doubtful" character and incredulity.
Ilya's barge was called a "kazenka" because a caravan clerk was sailing on it, and for this occasion a small cabin was arranged on the deck, near which an "eye" rose, that is, a high mast with a multi-colored feather at the top, something like a peacock's tail. At all piers, the same treasuries are arranged; with them there is a special category of barge haulers, known as "inert". The inert ones are selected from the best barge haulers and flaunt throughout the caravan in kumach shirts and in hats with multi-colored ribbons: it is by these ribbons that the inert ones of different marinas are distinguished. The inert boats got their name from the inert boat, on which they travel from barge to barge with various orders from the clerk ...
I, too, was offered accommodation on the treasury, in the clerk's cabin, and as soon as the water turned to profit, all my belongings from Yermolai Antipych's apartment went into the cabin.
Are you not a coward? - Yermolai Antipych asked me at parting.
So far, nothing, but I can’t vouch for the future ...
Remember only one thing, - the kind old man advised, - there is no need to hurry ... The people are stupid: a fighter touched a barge, - everyone was in the boat; But where can sixty people fit in one? They drown each other ... And you look at the rafter: what he will do, then you do.
I could only thank you for the good advice.
Yermolai Antipych and Lyubenka accompanied me to the very treasury, where Ilya busied himself with barge haulers and inert ones. All the barges were ready to set off and stretched out along the coast in one line. The water kept coming and going noisily; boards, logs and fresh wood chips, caught in the water along the upper piers, rushed along the river. The barge haulers had long since settled down in the barges and dragged their knapsacks under the decks; it would take four days to sail along the river, it was necessary to stock up for the whole time bread, crackers and some welding, just in case. The work ahead was hard, and it was especially necessary for the weary barge hauler to sip something hot in order not to completely exhaust himself ...
Well, Ilya, it's time to back off, - Yermolai Antipych decided, looking at his watch. - No matter how the caravan runs from above ... How much water does it cost?
Eleven quarters, Yermolai Antipych...
Get off, Ilya, get off!
Yermolai Antipych and Lyubenka were the last to leave our barge. The barge haulers stood up to the diabolical ones, the water-pipe threw down the gangplank. The day was sunny, bright, the whole coast was covered with the first pale greenery, the birds that had arrived in the forest were flooding ...
* Diarrhea, or potes, - huge logs that replace the steering wheel.
Ilya pulled his felt hat deeply over his head, looked back at the shore strewn with people, and commanded:
Give me the tackle!
There was a fuss on the shore, and a thick rope splashed heavily into the water; the barge seemed to shudder and began to separate from the shore.
Nose to the left, well done! - Ilya shouted, and the nose pots flopped heavily into the water, opening it into two wide, foaming waves.
A fire flashed on the shore, and the first cannon shot boomed along the river, followed by another, and a third ... White smoke soared upwards, as if an armful of fluff had been thrown into the air. The whole coast with houses, hundreds of people, with shops and firing cannons seemed to float back from us, up the river. One barge rolled off after another, starting to rake in the water with difficulty. I stood at the stern and looked for a long time at the drifting shore, where a white dot flickered in the air: it was Lyubenka waving her handkerchief to the city man.
The river soon made a sharp turn, and the pier was completely out of sight. The barge sailed along steep green banks exactly between two walls; the water foamed and murmured under the nose of the barge and hit the shore with a foaming wave... The Chusovaya was unrecognizable... The river just "played", as barge haulers say about the spring flood; A better name is hard to come by. Even on the stretches, that is, in places where in summer the water stands quietly, quietly, like a mirror, a mighty wave now rolled in a wide current, which, at sharp turns, turned into a rabid beast. Maidans formed near the concave part of the shore, that is, rows of strong waves that crashed with noise near the sides of the barge and climbed ashore with a wild roar, greedily sucking on the coastal stones.
Support the stern, well done! .. - Ilya shouted, waving his hand. - Support the stern... The stern...
The potes with a dull noise fell into the water, and the barge shuddered from the tramp of barge feet. Now she was really alive, one huge whole, blindly obeying one will. The individual faces of the barge haulers merged into one solid mass, as if a gray wave was moving across the deck, and the swashbucklers drilled and foamed the water like huge wooden hands.
I admired the rafter Ilya for a long time, who was now standing on his bench in his blue caftan and red sash, like a real commander: at one movement of his hands, like feathers, potes flew in the hands of barge haulers, and the barge slowly turned its bow in the direction it should have turned . The former Ilya, who drank tea with us at Yermolai Antipych's, seemed to be completely gone, but there was a completely different person, on whom the fate of not only the barge, but also all barge haulers depended. A calm expression on his face, a confident look in narrowed gray eyes, a firm voice - in a word, Ilya was immediately reborn.
Well, sir, is our Chusovaya playing well? - Ilya asked me when the barge sailed out onto a wide stretch.
Never mind...
But the pebbles will come up, there she will already comfort us, my dear ... The sky will seem like a sheepskin out of habit!
With each step forward, an endless ribbon of majestic mountain panorama unfolded before my eyes. The mountains changed, protruding into the river with huge rocks several tens of sazhens high. Usually such rocks stood on the sharp turns of the river, on its concave bank, so that the water jet carried the barge directly onto such a rock, onto the soldier. Here, on these exposed cliffs, one could see the results of the destructive action of water. For millennia, the river eroded stone mountains step by step, exposing huge stone walls, as if created by the hands of some giants, and not by blind elemental force. There are too many such fighting places on Chusovaya to describe each separately; the most dangerous fighters have their own names, while the less dangerous ones are simply called fighting places ...
As now I see one such fighting place. The river rolled on comparatively low banks, the mountains were left behind; the barge floated on the free stream easily and freely. A thick spruce forest was green on the shore; individual trees approached the river itself and stretched their shaggy branches far above the water ...
I peered ahead for a long time - the river rolled along the same green banks as before, only a dull noise was heard ahead. "These are probably the bunnies playing," I thought, trying to make out the dangerous place. In a minute the whole matter was explained; the road to the river was blocked by a low rocky mountain, and the river formed a steep bend under it, almost at a right angle. The water here was terribly seething and foaming, and a foamy bed of large waves rose far up the river. Soon the barge hit the "bunnies", it was picked up by a strong jet and quickly carried forward, right onto a rocky hill. The turn was so sharp that for a moment I considered the danger inevitable, especially since the barge was flying like an arrow along the "bunnies" right on the stones. The task was to pass along the opposite bank; the stern muddied the water, touching the shore, the bow was turned towards the jet, with which it was also beaten back to the shore. One moment, and the barge flew like a bird under a stone, leaving the playing "bunnies" behind.
In the third year, three barges were killed here, ”Ilya said, when the barge again calmly sailed along a wide and smooth reach.
It was necessary to see how barge haulers worked near the "bunnies". There was no sound on the barge, everything froze, and Ilya’s team barely had time to break, as the potes began to frantically row the water, dispersing a foamy wide wave across the entire river.
Barge haulers work nicely, - I noticed Ilya.
Nothing... Take a look at our piers... kindly-expensive. All the power is in them, and the newcomers - they only get in the way. Look how the porters are throwing up some filthy stuff... A toy, not a job!
Soon the Boundary Duck, - said Ilya. - And there, right up to Kyn, we will all run in stones ...
Landmark Duck, like a pier, a very beautiful village, one and a half hundred yards; on the shore there is an old chapel, on the arrow between Utka and Chusova there is a beautiful caravan office and a very good harbor where barges are built and loaded. Strong huts, located according to the plan, several two-story houses, shops - all this gives the Landmark Duck a prosperous and contented look ...
There they are, pebbles, ”Ilya said, throwing his head back. - Look up, and you will lose your hat ...
At the very top of these stone palaces, rickety wooden crosses blacken. This is the only monument that barge haulers leave over their dead comrades, buried somewhere on the opposite bank, where a willow bristles with its lowered branches.
And many barge haulers die on the raft? - I ask Ilya.
Anything happens, sir... Another fusion God will carry all the caravans mercifully; it just rarely happens. A man of heels - a dozen still die from the barques ... There were also such springs that all a hundred people drowned. A lot of our brother, barge haulers, along Chusovaya are buried on the shore.
Soon we actually saw what the crosses on the rocks were talking about. Below the village of Permyakova, when our barge began to go around a steep cape, there was a general cry:
The dead barge!.. The barge was killed!..
Ilya, shielding his eyes from the sun with his hand, stared into the distance. Half a verst away from us, some formless mass was floating from under the fighter, which it was difficult to mistake for a barge. It was evident that something large was floating along the river, with boards sticking out and people running around.
Oh! She scooped up water with her left shoulder, hearty, ”Ilya said, continuing to watch the dead barge. - Look at the people, how they swarm in the water, like cockroaches!
Closer was the stern of a sinking barge with diarrhea hanging helplessly in the air; the wrecked barge sank lower and lower into the water, quietly turning in the current, stern first. Black dots flickered in the water: they were barge haulers from a broken barge. The inert boat floated along the rock without people, filled to the brim with water. Probably, in the confusion, the workers threw themselves into it, and the boat capsized from unbearable weight.
Oh, rubbish business ... No matter how she blocked the river for us, - Ilya fussed. - Look how clever it was: so a dead cow and floats along the river ... Hit, brothers, your nose to the left! Strike hard, much, well done! .. Strike, my dears! .. Nose to the left! .. Nose to the left!
The fighter approached us and quickly grew into a large limestone rock, resting against the river with a sharp ridge. On this crest, probably, the unfortunate barge hit. On the shore, the workers who had come up senselessly ran, some sat and stared blankly at the wrecked barge floating past. Some gray-haired old man in a red shirt was running along the shore towards us, waving his arms and shouting something loudly. It was impossible to hear anything over the noise of the waves and the creak of the tees.
Hit the stern-on-horse!! - Ilya shouted furiously when our barge flew towards the fighter like an arrow. - Relatives, do not give out!
It is difficult to convey the solemn moment that had come: a deathly silence reigned on the barge, barge haulers unanimously picked up the team, and the potes flew like feathers. There are already a few fathoms left before the fighter, you can clearly see every notch on him; the water, like mad, rushes about and rumbles at its foot ... We were separated from the fighter by some half an arshin, when the barge slowly turned its bow from him and the danger passed. The water bubbled all around, as if in a cauldron, the waves climbed on board like a hungry pack of wolves.
Sabbat-nose-off! Ilya commanded, taking off his hat to cross himself.
The barge was on free water and quietly sailed on, past the crowded people on the shore. All were wet, many without hats; something was shouting after us, but it was hard to hear their cries. Immediately someone was pumped out on a stretched caftan. One could only see how his head dangled helplessly and his bare, whitened feet twitched.
Two choked, - Ilya remarked briefly.
On the shore, under the tall bushes, one could see two figures lying motionless, covered with a holey zipun. A blue face with wet hair flashed, a convulsively clenched hand - and nothing more. Who are these victims of the alloy? In what village will two families mourn the dear dead, perhaps the only breadwinners? What kind of children were orphaned in just a quarter of an hour? It was sad and hard to look at this too ordinary picture for Chusovaya... - a nameless forest bird.
We soon caught up with the "killed" barge, it was quietly sailing near the shore; the deck was torn off, and matting coolies peeped out from under it. All cargo was wet.
You see, how distorted, - said Ilya. - You don’t know what to apply to ... He hit the fighter with his left shoulder, and the diarrheal nasal blew off. Oh ho ho!
More peace, - said Ilya.
The inert ones returned to the barge with nothing. They could not make further searches, because their own barge was not waiting, and the dead man did not need anyone's help. All the same, in a stray wave somewhere it will throw ashore, onto a sandbank, and there kind people picked up and buried.
A little higher than the Kynovskaya pier, a small mountain river Serebryanka flows into Chusovaya, and twenty versts below the Serebryanka River on Chusovaya stands the Kynovsky plant, or, as barge haulers call it, simply Kyn. Is not Russian word, but passed to us from the Permian language: in Permian "kynu" means "cold". And indeed, it is difficult to imagine anything more homeless and deafer than Kyn. Imagine a deep gorge, as if deliberately carved out of stone; a small river rolls along the bottom of this gorge, and factory houses, a factory factory, metal shops are located along its banks. In the depths, a strip of the factory pond turns blue, and several blast furnaces smoke; closer - a white stone church, a factory office and several other houses with iron roofs.
This Kyn is sitting here for us, ”Ilya explained, pointing to the back of his head.
Why?
Yes, so ... You see how Chusovaya is arching here, the kynovskaya pier is in the very bend and stands, well, in a jet it blows our barges right to the pier, to the kynovskaya barges. And lower, it’s too much: either you’ll kill yourself on the Kynov barks, or on the bust ... Choose any and the best. Here barge haulers will fill their foreheads to the full! Well, darlings, take a walk, nose to the right! ..
We passed under Kyn safely, although the barge haulers got a fair amount. One could be surprised at their endurance, but meanwhile, two more days of travel seemed to be ahead - this was in a happy case, of course.
In a day, all eighteen hours at the diarrhea will stand, - Ilya said about barge haulers.
Yes, this is horse work! ..
What will you do! The river won't wait for us...
And when to rest?
But soon there will be rest: we will grapple under Oslyanka. There is such a pier, lower than the Kyn, well, there will be a grip behind it ... We will stand by the coast for six hours, let the water catch up with us, And people also need to rest ...
I was looking forward to the grip. Even earlier, I heard a lot of different stories about such grips on spring rafting: how the grip was pulled out, for which the tackle was wound, how this grip or flint burnt out, how people were killed and maimed by bursting tackle, etc. Stopping a barge with fifteen thousand pounds of cargo on such a fast river as the Chusovaya is not an easy task.
Vavilo, we need to prepare the tackle, ”Ilya said, when we sailed through Oslyanka, the last pier where barges are loaded. - You should catch it before dark.
Indeed, the sun was already beginning to set, and long shadows stretched along the river from the rocks and the forest. Night here comes with amazing speed, and along with the dusk of the night comes the piercing spring cold, which creeps onto the river from deep lairs where unmelted snow still lies.
Vavilo's waterpipe, a taciturn, stern peasant, silently went over the rear deck and silently began to put in order the tackle, that is, a thick rope, rolled up in regular rings. The latter is very important so that during the grip the tackle does not get confused, but unfolds freely.
Done, - Vavilo answered, standing near the flint.
Inert, get in the boat! Ilya commanded.
Six selected stagnant men went into the boat and took with them half of the unwound tackle.
Here, well done, as the barge runs out over the cape, there is a bend, - Ilya explained to the inert ones, - and in the bend, on the left bank, there is a seasoned stump ... Here for him and fasten the tackle!
The barka rounded the cape, and a wide stretch flashed ahead, with the bend that Ilya spoke of. The water here did not rush as furiously as before, and the barge went noticeably quieter. In order to delay her further, Ilya ordered to "keep up the stern", and the barge went astern almost near the very shore. There are two cedars on the shore, and a seasoned stump, about which Ilya spoke. The boat with the scythes separated from the barge and rushed towards the shore like an arrow. Having somehow stuck to the shore, the inert ones jumped out of the boat at once and dragged the tackle dragging along the ground to the cedars. The barka had already sailed past them at that time, and Vavilo quickly lowered the unwound tackle into the water so that it would not be pulled out of the hands of the inert ones.
Ready! came from the shore.
Attach tackle! Ilya commanded.
The water pourer threw a prepared loop over the flint and pulled the rope over its free end. The barge shuddered, as if someone had seized it by the bottom with a mighty hand. The tackle slapped heavily on the water several times, and then quickly stretched and trembled like a string. The boat almost came to a complete halt.
Grass tackle! Ilya shouted.
Vavilo let go a few revolutions, the tackle again flopped heavily into the water, and the flint and flint began to smoke. It was as if the barca made an attempt to free herself from the bridle that held her and again went forward.
Tackle grass!.. Tackle grass! Ilya shouted.
Thick smoke poured from the flint and flint in white puffs, but it was immediately flooded with water. The rigging was tightened again, but now the barge had already lost half of the speed it had acquired from moving along the river, and it was as if it had approached the shore on its own.
Fasten the tackle tightly, - Ilya commanded.
The tackle was wrapped around the flint in a dead loop, and the barge stopped.
Ilya thanked the barge haulers for their friendly work and congratulated them on the happy grip.
Thank you, Ilya Maksimych! Dozens of voices responded. - Keeping your head...
A gangway was thrown ashore, and barge haulers filed off the barge in single file.
Soon, bright fires blazed on the shore. Dozens of barge haulers crowded around them, like Chinese shadows on the screen of a magic lantern. Who cooked porridge in a cast-iron pot, who warmed their frozen hands by the fire, who chewed a dry black crust, exposing their back to the fire, who simply pushed between other people to stretch their swollen legs from standing. Some were sitting, others were going to bed. Right there, near the fire, he curls up, puts his fist under his head, and sleeps in such a sweet dream that the rich probably never sleep on their down jackets and spring mattresses.
And the short spring night was already hanging over Chusovaya, with its soft dusk, cold and feverishly burning stars. Again the fuss of ducks was heard, and somewhere in the swamp the corncrake creaked endlessly ...
Early in the morning, when I was still sleeping, the barge rolled away and "ran" forward. Through a dream, Ilya's command reached me: "bow to the right", "support the stern", but I slept like a log. The tramp of burlak feet on the deck, the sound of water near the sides and the floundering of diarrhea somehow completely merged with chaotic night dreams: it seemed that the barge was flying straight at the fighter, then the desperate cry of drowning people was heard, then an ominous, dead silence ensued ...
On the water, as many have probably observed, appetite especially develops, and then the deepest sleep overcomes. I continued to lie on my bench, wrapped in a blanket, when exactly something scribbled along the bottom of the barge. But it was nothing: probably, the barge touched the edge of the underwater rock, and then calmly sailed forward again. I was sleeping when a strong jolt made me jump up. A dull rustle was heard, as if a barge was rolling over dry peas.
It's okay, they hurt a little on the rim, ”my companion explained, lighting a cigarette. - Now it's not dangerous ... The barge almost completely ran out of the stones; if we get stranded somewhere, it's not a big deal. Below Kamasina, there will be work...
Yes, lower than Kumysh ... Have you heard about the fighter Molokov?
Well, it's worth a look.
When we were talking like that, the rustle was repeated several times, and then the barge at once crashed into something soft and stopped. Only the water gurgled muffledly near the sides, and the diaphoretic ones continued to beat right and left in vain. I went on deck. The barge ran aground.
Rubbish business, - Ilya said, going down from the bench.
Barge haulers stood impassively on the deck and waited for what the rafter would say.
What are we going to do now? I asked.
But it is necessary, after all, to get off the breast.
Obviously, we ran out of the mountains. In front and on the sides spread a wide plain, where in the midst of the forest fields flashed in regular squares, winters turned green, and somewhere far, far away, on a steep bank, a village could be seen. Blackened, loose ice floes slowly floated along the river; on the opposite bank stood, squinting, a shallow barge.
Where is the ice coming from? I asked Ilya.
Yes, from Koiva, master, - reluctantly answered the old man, who was now not up to me. - There is such a river, it’s called Koiva, well, ice comes out of it ... Look, he’ll cut the barge.
What is it like?
And so: an ice floe after an ice floe will begin to cut through the barge, well, and they will cut through the side ... Oh, what a sin it was! There has never been a brisket in this very place, and then suddenly a brisket.
What about the village ahead?
Yes, this is Kamasino ... Oh, what a sin you came out! .. ah! ..
The village of Kamasino serves as a sharp edge for Chusovaya: here it finally runs out of the mountains, ahead of it is an undulating plain covered with forest, arable land and water meadows. In the distance one could see the railway bridge thrown across the Chusovaya on high stone abutments. Here Chusovaya is crossed by the recently built Ural Mining Railway. There are a number of dangerous shoals near Kamasin, because the river here overflows very widely in the low banks.
Well, brothers, how are we going to take off the barge? - Ilya asked, referring to the barge haulers.
The barge haulers shifted and did not answer. Ilya grunted impatiently, threw his leather mittens on the deck and turned to the inert ones.
Release your captivity... Let's first try to unwittingly take off, maybe we'll get off the breast.
Captivity is called a huge log, hewn on both sides; it looks like a huge board, several inches thick. There are usually two such captivity for each barge, and they swim near the sides, somewhat protecting the sides from hitting the fighters.
Five minutes later, the inert ones were ready, that is, they took off their caftans and boots and remained in their shirts. One of them, a healthy peasant with a blond beard, rolled up his pants and, holding on to the side of the barge, got into captivity.
Ah, it’s cold,” he said, tasting the cold water with his bare foot, “the water is burning ...
Well, well, don't talk! Ilya shouted. - Vavilo, untie bondage, and you, Sergey, go to the end.
A young guy in a red shirt shook his hair, crossed himself and at once jumped over the side into captivity.
Prepare chegen, please!
It's done, - the peasant with a blond beard answered, measuring the bottom with a short stake, which is called "chegen" by barge haulers. "It will be a quarter to five," he said...
Apparently, there is nothing to do, you have to go into the water, - Ilya decided. - Bondage does not take ... Well, which of the thugs is not afraid of water? Well, younger guys, undress and get to work!
Inert and about ten young barge haulers took off their bast shoes, zipuns and remained in the same shirts. It was necessary to go down into the water under the left shoulder in order to move it with chegens. Working in cold spring water is hard and extremely dangerous. Barge haulers do not like her, but she has to climb into the water, because time does not wait. Several barques have already sailed past us. It was enviable to look at them when their barge lay on the sand like a turtle.
Well, brothers, chegeni left shoulder! - Ilya commanded, running along the front deck. - And you, as the vile ones will strike, - he shouted to the inert ones in captivity, - turn the captivity ... Yes, at once, brothers! All together...
About fifteen haulers lined up under the left shoulder of the barge and picked it up with their chegens.
Some were up to their chests. Faces turned blue, many teeth chattered from the cold. The situation was the most ugly ... What was it worth to catch a cold in this icy water and lose not only health, but also life. From such filming, many barge haulers go to the grave or remain crippled for life.
When captivity was prepared, and barge haulers were standing at the diapers, Ilya himself tightened the "Dubinushka".
What did the guys subdue, Ali wanted to drink ...
Burlaki picked up.
Oh, dubi-inushka let's go!
The green one will go on her own, she will go on her own ... Let's pull! ..
The bar is coming! Ilya shouted, measuring the water with a long pole. - Another manenchko! .. Nose to the left, well done! .. - shouted Ilya. - Support the stern ... stern! stern!
The barge, like a turtle, turned the stern, extremely heavily drilling the sand with its nose, which formed a whole mountain under the left shoulder.
Cheer up your left shoulder!! Ilya shouted. - Well done, cheer up! .. Oh, well done! .. One more time! ..
The barge has gone... The barka has gone!! shouted dozens of voices, and barge haulers with chegens, like cats, began to climb the sides.
The barge was already on the free water and quietly swam stern forward, "turned around", as barge haulers say.
Well, thank God, - Ilya said, - thanks, guys! .. A glass of vodka for my brother! ..
After such an ice bath, vodka was a necessity to warm up a little. Some barge haulers had nothing to change their wet shirts, and they put their sermyags directly on them.
At the diarrheic one, they will warm up at a little time, ”Ilya explained. - A sort of sin came out ... Go ahead!
Why don't you have a fire on the barge, Ilya? I said. - If only the barge haulers would warm up ...
Well, no, sir, if you go from ice water to fire, then you are finished ... We even know this quite well! Which barge hauler, if he doesn’t endure it like that, but sticks himself to the fire, is now gone. That's right!.. It's always like that. Who will lose their arms, who will have their legs, and who will die completely.
Yes, it’s good to say when everything is dry on you, but what does it feel like for them, who stand on the deck in the wet ...
What to do, they'll be patient... After all, it's not the first time... Here at Molokov's and at the Robber's, everyone will warm up, sweat will break out. Oh, you, think, what a sin! .. And?!
We sailed past the village of Kamasino, under the railway bridge, and then soon the small village of Kumysh appeared. This last village is remarkable in that below it are the most dangerous fighters in the entire Chusovaya - Molokov and Robber. Many baroques beat against them, especially in high water. Chusovaya goes here in low banks, in a wide flood, far flooding meadows; Molokov and the Robber are, as it were, the last and most terrible obstacle with which the old Ural once again blocks the path of the mountain beauty Chusova.
Under Molokovo, Chusovaya makes a turn, and in the halt of this turn, where the barge is blown away by the jet, stands a terrible fighter. From afar, the stone itself does not represent anything particularly terrible: it is a large rock that has turned towards the water with its sloping edge. It is on this slope that the water runs high up to the very fighter, and then with a terrible roar and groan it runs back into the river, forming a real hell of foaming waves under the fighter. Even from a distance you can hear how the river roars near Molokovo, and closer you only see that all the water here turns into a continuous stream of white foam, as if milk is boiling under the fighter. Hence the name of the fighter himself - Molokov.
Hats off! - Ilya commanded, when our barge with deathly silence began to approach the fighter. - Do your best, folks!
Of course, barge haulers have nothing to ask for work, they themselves are aware of the importance of the coming moment and will spare no effort to make the barge fly like a bird under the most terrible fighter.
Our barge was picked up by a jet and carried with terrible speed straight at the fighter.
The river narrows towards the fighter, and you feel how a mighty elemental force picks up the barge and rushes with increasing speed to a terrible stone ledge.
Here we are in a strip of foaming water, which, like mad, climbs with gray ridges on the sides of our barge ... Here is the formidable Molokov himself ... He seems to be growing every second and quickly approaching us. The consciousness of one's own movement is somehow lost in this chaos of sounds, the head is spinning, and it seems that the shores are running past the barge, and an inexorable, boiling abyss awaits ahead. But a few sazhens to Molokovo ... there is water dust in the air ... One more second, and we will be crushed in a terrible whirlpool ... At the most critical moment, when the common death seems inevitable, Ilya’s command is heard, the diarrhea fell into the water at once , and the barge quickly passed under the fighter, some two arshins from the fatal ledge.
We are saved. I can't believe the danger passed so quickly. And the Robber is waiting ahead, but now he is no longer scary to us, because the barge is sailing along suvodi.
Take a walk, well done! - Ilya shouts cheerfully, patting his leather mittens.
Under the Robber, the barge passed safely. Everyone's heart was relieved. Laughter and cheerful conversation are heard. Someone hums a song under his breath. There is a forest on the shore, beyond the fields, hedges, and there a tiny nameless village is stuck on the high bank, on the very Jura and looks merrily downhill, where the kolomenkas run under a steep line.
Are there other places on Chusovaya like Molokov and Robber? I asked Elijah.
There are no such people, but there are some around... The rafting worker with Druzhny, the Stove with Vysoky: they have only one music, perhaps. Nothing, good, funny fighters!..
If in the mountainous part of Chusovaya one can meet broken barges, then below Kamasin, shallow barges began to come across. In some places they were removed from the woods, as we were at Kamasin, others were completely dried up and stood half in the water without any signs of life. The workers left, and only weirs guarded the cargo.
The rest of our path, except for historical memories, did not represent anything special. There were several villages that flaunted on a high bank, and there - either meadows or forests. All the way from Kamasin to Perm, almost at a distance of three hundred miles, there is only one village, these are the Upper and Lower Chusovskie Gorodoki, which for the present have only historical interest, as one of the first Russian settlements on Chusovaya.
On the fourth day we safely landed in Perm. Here, on the ship, sitting in a second-class common cabin, I spent a long time sorting through the impression of an anxious journey along Chusovaya. Only after experiencing all the dangers of rafting on a barge, you will truly appreciate all the conveniences of traveling even on the worst steamer.
Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak - On the Chusovaya River, read text
See also Mamin-Sibiryak Dmitry Narkisovich - Prose (stories, poems, novels ...):
BEGINNER
I The children's world, as I said, is expanding in concentric circles, ...
mischievous
Story I Spirka was sitting at the window of his hut, looking towards the Bashkirs...
The Ural Mountains, also called the "Stone Belt of the Urals", are represented by a mountain system surrounded by two plains (East European and West Siberian). These ranges function as a natural barrier between Asian and European territory, and are among the oldest mountains in the world. Their composition is represented by several parts - polar, southern, subpolar, northern and middle.
Ural Mountains: where are they located
feature geographical location of this system is considered to be the extent from the northern to the southern direction. Hills adorn the mainland of Eurasia, mainly covering two countries - Russia and Kazakhstan. Part of the array is spread in the Arkhangelsk, Sverdlovsk, Orenburg, Chelyabinsk regions, the Perm Territory, Bashkortostan. The coordinates of the natural object - the mountains run parallel to the 60th meridian. 
The length of this mountain range is more than 2500 km, and the absolute height of the main peak is 1895 m. The average height of the Ural mountains is 1300-1400 m.
The highest peaks of the array include:
The highest point is located on the border separating the Republic of Komi and the territory of Yugra (Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug).
The Ural Mountains reach the shores belonging to the Arctic Ocean, then hide under water for some distance, continue on Vaigach and the archipelago New Earth. Thus, the massif extended northward for another 800 km. The maximum width of the "Stone Belt" is about 200 km. In some places it narrows to 50 km or more. 
Origin story
Geologists say that the Ural Mountains have a complex way of origin, as evidenced by the variety of rocks in their structure. Mountain ranges are associated with the era of the Hercynian folding (late Paleozoic), and their age reaches 600,000,000 years. 
The system was formed as a result of the collision of two huge plates. The beginning of these events was preceded by a gap in the earth's crust, after the expansion of which an ocean was formed, which disappeared over time.
Researchers believe that the distant ancestors of the modern system have undergone significant changes over the course of many millions of years. Today, a stable situation prevails in the Ural Mountains, and any significant movements from the side earth's crust missing. Last thing strong earthquake(capacity of about 7 points) occurred in 1914. 
Nature and wealth of the "Stone Belt"
Staying in the Ural Mountains, you can admire impressive views, visit various caves, swim in lake water, experience adrenaline emotions, going down along the flow of raging rivers. It is convenient to travel here in any way - by private cars, buses or on foot. 
Animal world The "Stone Belt" is diverse. In places where spruce grows, it is represented by squirrels that feed on the seeds of coniferous trees. After the arrival of winter, red animals feed on self-prepared supplies (mushrooms, pine nuts). Martens are found in abundance in the mountain forests. These predators settle nearby with squirrels and periodically hunt for them. 
The ridges of the Ural Mountains are rich in furs. Unlike the dark Siberian counterparts, the sables of the Urals have a reddish color. The hunting of these animals is prohibited by law, which allows them to freely breed in the mountain forests. In the Ural Mountains there is enough space for wolves, elks, and bears to live. The mixed forest zone is a favorite place for roe deer. Foxes and hares live on the plains. 
The Ural Mountains hide a variety of minerals in the bowels. Hills are fraught with asbestos, platinum, gold deposits. There are also deposits of gems, gold and malachite. 
Climate characteristic
Most of the Ural mountain system covers the temperate zone. If in the summer season you move along the perimeter of the mountains from the north to the south, you can record that the temperature indicators begin to increase. In summer, the temperature fluctuates at +10-12 degrees in the north and +20 in the south. In the winter season, temperature indicators acquire less contrast. With the onset of January, northern thermometers show about -20 ° C, in the south - from -16 to -18 degrees. 
The climate of the Urals is closely related to the air currents arriving from Atlantic Ocean. Most of the precipitation (up to 800 mm during the year) permeates the western slopes. In the eastern part, such indicators decrease to 400-500 mm. In winter, this zone of the mountain system is under the influence of an anticyclone coming from Siberia. In the south, in autumn and winter, one should count on cloudy and cold weather. 
Fluctuations typical of the local climate are largely due to the mountainous terrain. With increasing altitude, the weather becomes more severe, and temperature indicators vary significantly in different parts of the slopes. 
Description of local attractions
The Ural Mountains can be proud of many sights:
- Deer Streams Park.
- Reserve "Rezhevskoy".
- Kungur cave.
- An ice fountain located in the Zyuratkul park.
- "Bazhov places".
Deer Streams Park located in the city of Nizhniye Sergi. Fans of ancient history will be interested in the local Pisanitsa rock, dotted with drawings by ancient artists. Other prominent places in this park are the caves and the Big Pit. Here you can walk along special paths, visit observation platforms, and cross to the right place by cable car. 
Reserve "Rezhevskoy" attracts all connoisseurs of gems. This protected area contains deposits of precious and semi-precious stones. It is forbidden to walk here on your own - you can stay on the territory of the reserve only under the supervision of employees. 
The territory of the reserve is crossed by the river Rezh. On its right bank is the Shaitan-stone. Many Urals consider it magical, helping in solving various problems. That is why people who want to fulfill their dreams are constantly coming to the stone. 
Length Kungur ice cave- about 6 kilometers, of which tourists can visit only a quarter. In it you can see numerous lakes, grottoes, stalactites and stalagmites. To enhance the visual effects, there is a special backlight. The cave owes its name to the constant sub-zero temperature. To enjoy the local beauties, you need to have winter things with you. 
It originated from the Zyuratkul National Park, located near the city of Satka, Chelyabinsk Region, thanks to the appearance of a geological well. It is worth looking at only in winter. During the frosty season, this underground fountain freezes and takes the form of a 14-meter icicle. 
Park "Bazhovskie Places" associated with the famous and beloved by many book "Malachite Box". In this place, full-fledged conditions for vacationers are created. You can go on an exciting walk on foot, by bike, on horseback, while admiring the picturesque landscapes. 
Anyone can cool off here in the lake waters or climb the Markov stone hill. In the summer season, numerous extreme sports enthusiasts come to Bazhovskie Places in order to descend along the mountain rivers. In winter, you can experience just as much adrenaline in the park while walking on a snowmobile. 
Recreation centers in the Urals
All the necessary conditions have been created for visitors to the Ural Mountains. Recreation centers are located in places remote from noisy civilization, in quiet corners of pristine nature, often on the shores of local lakes. Depending on personal preferences, here you can stay in complexes with a modern design or in antique buildings. In any case, travelers are waiting for comfort and polite, caring staff. 
The bases provide rental of cross-country and alpine skis, kayaks, tubing, snowmobile trips with an experienced driver are available. On the territory of the guest zone there are traditionally located barbecue areas, a Russian bath with billiards, children's play houses and playgrounds. In such places, you can definitely forget about the bustle of the city, and fully relax on your own or with the whole family, taking unforgettable photos for memory.
"The stone belt of the Russian Land" - this is how the Ural Mountains were called in the old days. Indeed, they seem to gird Russia, separating European part from Asian. The mountain ranges, stretching for more than 2,000 kilometers, do not end on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. They just submerge into the water for a short time, in order to “emerge” later - first on the island of Vaygach. And then on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. Thus, the Ural stretches to the pole for another 800 kilometers.
The "stone belt" of the Urals is relatively narrow: it does not exceed 200 kilometers, narrowing in places to 50 kilometers or less. These are ancient mountains that arose several hundred million years ago, when fragments of the earth's crust were soldered together with a long uneven "seam". Since then, although the ridges have been renewed by ascending movements, they have been more destroyed. The highest point of the Urals is Mount Narodnaya - it rises only 1895 meters. Peaks over 1000 meters are excluded even in the most elevated parts.
Very diverse in height, relief and landscapes, the Ural Mountains are usually divided into several parts. The northernmost, wedged into the waters of the Arctic Ocean, is the Pai-Khoi ridge, low (300-500 meters) ridges of which are partially submerged in glacial and marine sediments of the surrounding plains.
The Polar Urals are noticeably higher (up to 1300 meters or more). In its relief there are traces of ancient glacial activity: narrow ridges with sharp peaks (carlings); between them lie wide deep valleys (troughs), including through ones. According to one of them, the Polar Urals is crossed by a railway going to the city of Labytnangi (on the Ob). In the Subpolar Urals, which is very similar in appearance, the mountains reach their maximum heights.
In the Northern Urals, separate massifs - "stones" stand out, noticeably rising above the surrounding low mountains - Denezhkin Kamen (1492 meters), Konzhakovsky Kamen (1569 meters). Longitudinal ridges and depressions separating them are clearly expressed here. The rivers are forced to follow them for a long time before they gain strength to escape from the mountainous country along a narrow gorge. The peaks, unlike the polar ones, are rounded or flat, decorated with steps - upland terraces. Both peaks and slopes are covered with collapses of large boulders; in some places, remnants in the form of truncated pyramids (locally tumpy) rise above them.
In the north, you can meet the inhabitants of the tundra - reindeer in the forests are found bears, wolves, foxes, sables, ermines, lynxes, as well as ungulates (moose, deer, etc.).
Scientists are not always able to establish when people settled in a particular area. Ural is one of similar examples. Traces of the activities of people who lived here 25-40 thousand years ago are preserved only in deep caves. Found several parking lots ancient man. The northern ("Basic") was 175 kilometers from the Arctic Circle.
The Middle Urals can be attributed to the mountains with a great deal of conventionality: a noticeable dip formed in this place of the "belt". There are only a few isolated gentle hills no higher than 800 meters. The plateaus of the Cis-Urals, belonging to the Russian Plain, freely "overflow" through the main watershed and pass into the Trans-Ural Plateau - already within Western Siberia.
In the Southern Urals, which has a mountainous appearance, parallel ridges reach their maximum width. Peaks rarely overcome the thousand-meter barrier (the highest point is Mount Yamantau - 1640 meters); their outlines are soft, the slopes are gentle.
The mountains of the Southern Urals, largely composed of easily soluble rocks, have a karst relief form - blind valleys, funnels, caves and failures formed during the destruction of arches.
The nature of the Southern Urals differs sharply from the nature of the Northern Urals. In summer, in the dry steppes of the Mugodzhary ridge, the earth warms up to 30-40`C. Even a weak wind raises whirlwinds of dust. The Ural River flows at the foot of the mountains along a long depression of the meridional direction. The valley of this river is almost treeless, the current is calm, although there are also rapids.
Ground squirrels, shrews, snakes and lizards are found in the Southern steppes. Rodents (hamsters, field mice) spread on the plowed lands.
The landscapes of the Urals are diverse, because the chain crosses as far as natural areas- from the tundra to the steppes. Altitudinal belts are weakly expressed; only the largest peaks are noticeably different in their bareness from the foothills overgrown with forests. Rather, you can catch the difference between the slopes. Western, still "European", are relatively warm and humid. Oaks, maples and other broad-leaved trees grow on them, which no longer penetrate the eastern slopes: Siberian, North Asian landscapes dominate here.
Nature, as it were, confirms the decision of man to draw a border between parts of the world along the Urals.
In the foothills and mountains of the Urals, the subsoil is full of untold riches: copper, iron, nickel, gold, diamonds, platinum, precious stones and gems, coal and rock salt ... This is one of the few areas on the planet where mining originated five thousand years ago and will continue to exist for a very long time.
GEOLOGICAL AND TECTONIC STRUCTURE OF THE URALS
The Ural Mountains formed in the region of the Hercynian folding. They are separated from the Russian Platform by the Cis-Ural marginal foredeep, filled with Paleogene sedimentary strata: clays, sands, gypsum, limestones.
The oldest rocks of the Urals - Archean and Proterozoic crystalline schists and quartzites - make up its water-spreading ridge.
To the west of it are Paleozoic sedimentary and metamorphic rocks crumpled into folds: sandstones, shales, limestones and marbles.
In the eastern part of the Urals, among the Paleozoic sedimentary strata, igneous rocks of various compositions are widespread. This is the reason for the exceptional wealth of the eastern slope of the Urals and the Trans-Urals with a variety of ore minerals, precious and semi-precious stones.
CLIMATE OF THE URAL MOUNTAINS
The Ural lies in the depths. mainland far from the Atlantic Ocean. This determines the continentality of its climate. Climatic heterogeneity within the Urals is associated primarily with its large extent from north to south, from the shores of the Barents and Kara Seas to the dry steppes of Kazakhstan. As a result, the northern and southern regions of the Urals find themselves in unequal radiation and circulation conditions and fall into different climatic zones - subarctic (up to the polar slope) and temperate (the rest of the territory).
The belt of mountains is narrow, the heights of the ridges are relatively small, so there is no special mountain climate in the Urals. However, meridionally elongated mountains have a rather significant effect on circulation processes, playing the role of a barrier to the prevailing western transport of air masses. Therefore, although the climates of neighboring plains are repeated in the mountains, but in a slightly modified form. In particular, at any crossing of the Urals in the mountains, the climate of more northern regions is observed than on the adjacent plains of the foothills, that is, the climatic zones in the mountains are shifted to the south compared to neighboring plains. Thus, within the Ural mountainous country, the change in climatic conditions is subject to the law of latitudinal zonality and is only somewhat complicated by altitudinal zonality. There is a change in climate from tundra to steppe.
Being an obstacle to the movement of air masses from west to east, the Urals is an example of a physiographic country where the effect of orography on climate is quite clearly manifested. This effect is primarily manifested in better moistening of the western slope, which is the first to encounter cyclones, and the Cis-Urals. At all crossings of the Urals, the amount of precipitation on the western slopes is 150 - 200 mm more than on the eastern ones.
The greatest amount of precipitation (over 1000 mm) falls on the western slopes of the Polar, Subpolar and partially Northern Urals. This is due to both the height of the mountains and their position on the main paths of the Atlantic cyclones. To the south, the amount of precipitation gradually decreases to 600 - 700 mm, again increasing to 850 mm in the most highly elevated part of the Southern Urals. In the southern and southeastern parts of the Urals, as well as in the far north, the annual precipitation is less than 500 - 450 mm. The maximum precipitation occurs during the warm period.
In winter, snow cover sets in the Urals. Its thickness in the Cis-Urals is 70 - 90 cm. In the mountains, the snow thickness increases with height, reaching 1.5 - 2 m on the western slopes of the Subpolar and Northern Urals. Snow is especially plentiful in the upper part of the forest belt. There is much less snow in the Trans-Urals. In the southern part of the Trans-Urals, its thickness does not exceed 30–40 cm.
In general, within the Ural mountain country, the climate varies from severe and cold in the north to continental and rather dry in the south. There are noticeable differences in the climate of mountainous regions, western and eastern foothills. The climate of the Cis-Urals and the western slopes of rop is close in a number of ways to the climate of the eastern regions of the Russian Plain, and the climate of the eastern slopes of rop and the Trans-Urals is close to the continental climate of Western Siberia.
The rugged relief of the mountains causes a significant variety of their local climates. Here there is a change in temperature with height, although not as significant as in the Caucasus. During the summer, temperatures drop. For example, in the foothills of the Subpolar Urals, the average temperature in July is 12 C, and at altitudes of 1600 - 1800 m - only 3 - 4 "C. In winter, cold air stagnates in the intermountain basins and temperature inversions are observed. higher than on mountain ranges.Therefore, mountains of unequal height, slopes of different wind and solar exposure, mountain ranges and intermountain basins differ from each other in their climatic features.
Climatic features and orographic conditions contribute to the development in the Polar and Subpolar Urals, between 68 and 64 N, small forms of modern glaciation. There are 143 glaciers here, and their total area is just over 28 km2, which indicates a very small size of glaciers. Not without reason, when speaking about the modern glaciation of the Urals, the word "glaciers" is usually used. Their main types are steam (2/3 of the total number) and leaning (sloping). There are kirov-hanging and kirov-valley. The largest of them are the IGAN glaciers (area 1.25 km2, length 1.8 km) and MGU (area 1.16 km2, length 2.2 km).
The area of distribution of modern glaciation is the highest part of the Urals with a wide development of ancient glacial cirques and cirques, with the presence of trough valleys and peaked peaks. Relative heights reach 800 - 1000 m. The Alpine type of relief is most characteristic of the ridges lying to the west of the watershed, but the cirques and cirques are located mainly on the eastern slopes of these ridges. On the same ridges, the greatest amount of precipitation also falls, but due to snowstorms and avalanche snow coming from steep slopes, snow accumulates in the negative forms of leeward slopes, providing food for modern glaciers that exist due to this at altitudes of 800-1200 m, i.e. e. below the climatic limit.
WATER RESOURCES
The rivers of the Urals belong to the basins of the Pechora, Volga, Ural and Ob, i.e., respectively, the Barents, Caspian and Kara seas. The amount of river runoff in the Urals is much greater than in the adjacent Russian and West Siberian Plains. The mountainous relief, increased precipitation, lower temperatures in the mountains favor an increase in runoff, so most of the rivers and rivers of the Urals are born in the mountains and flow down their slopes to the west and east, to the plains of the Cis-Urals and Trans-Urals. In the north, the mountains are a watershed between the river systems of the Pechora and Ob, to the south - between the basins of the Tobol, which also belongs to the Ob and Kama systems - the largest tributary of the Volga. The extreme south of the territory belongs to the Ural River basin, and the watershed shifts to the plains of the Trans-Urals.
The rivers are fed by snow (up to 70% of the flow), rain (20 - 30%) and groundwater (usually no more than 20%). Significantly increases (up to 40%) the participation of groundwater in the feeding of rivers in karst areas. An important feature of most of the rivers of the Urals is the relatively low variability of runoff from year to year. The ratio of the runoff of the most abundant year to the runoff of the least water usually ranges from 1.5 to 3.
Lakes in the Urals are very unevenly distributed. Their greatest number is concentrated in the eastern foothills of the Middle and Southern Urals, where tectonic lakes predominate, in the mountains of the Subpolar and Polar Urals, where tarns are numerous. On the Trans-Ural plateau, suffusion-subsidence lakes are common, and in the Cis-Urals there are karst lakes. In total, there are more than 6000 lakes in the Urals, each with an area of more than 1 ra, their total area is over 2000 km2. Small lakes predominate, there are relatively few large lakes. Only some lakes of the eastern foothills have an area measured in tens of square kilometers: Argazi (101 km2), Uvildy (71 km2), Irtyash (70 km2), Turgoyak (27 km2), etc. In total, more than 60 large lakes with a total an area of about 800 km2. All large lakes are of tectonic origin.
The most extensive lakes in terms of the water surface are Uvildy, Irtyash.
The deepest are Uvildy, Kisegach, Turgoyak.
The most capacious are Uvildy and Turgoyak.
The cleanest water is in the lakes Turgoyak, Zyuratkul, Uvildy (a white disk is visible at a depth of 19.5 m).
In addition to natural reservoirs, there are several thousand reservoir ponds in the Urals, including more than 200 factory ponds, some of which have been preserved since Peter the Great.
Great is the importance of the water resources of the rivers and lakes of the Urals, primarily as a source of industrial and domestic water supply for numerous cities. A lot of water is consumed by the Ural industry, especially metallurgical and chemical industries, therefore, despite the seemingly sufficient amount of water, there is not enough water in the Urals. A particularly acute shortage of water is observed in the eastern foothills of the Middle and Southern Urals, where the water content of the rivers flowing down from the mountains is low.
Most of the rivers of the Urals are suitable for timber rafting, but very few are used for navigation. Partially navigable are Belaya, Ufa, Vishera, Tobol, and in high water - Tavda with Sosva and Lozva and Tura. The Ural rivers are of interest as a source of hydropower for the construction of small hydroelectric power plants on mountain rivers, but so far they have been little used. Rivers and lakes are wonderful places for recreation.
MINERALS OF THE URAL MOUNTAINS
Among the natural resources of the Urals, a prominent role belongs, of course, to the wealth of its bowels. Among the minerals, deposits of ore raw materials are of the greatest importance, however, many of them have been discovered for a long time and have been exploited for a long time, therefore they are largely depleted.
Ural ores are often complex. In iron ores there are impurities of titanium, nickel, chromium, vanadium; in copper - zinc, gold, silver. Majority ore deposits located on the eastern slope and in the Trans-Urals, where igneous rocks abound.
The Urals are primarily vast iron ore and copper provinces. More than a hundred deposits are known here: iron ore (Vysokoy, Blagodat, Magnitnaya mountains; Bakalskoye, Zigazinskoye, Avzyanskoye, Alapaevskoye, etc.) and titanium-magnetite (Kusinskoye, Pervouralskoye, Kachkanarskoye). There are numerous deposits of copper-pyrite and copper-zinc ores (Karabashskoye, Sibayskoye, Gayskoye, Uchalinskoye, Blyava, etc.). Among other non-ferrous and rare metals, there are large deposits of chromium (Saranovskoye, Kempirsayskoye), nickel and cobalt (Verkhneufaleyskoye, Orsko-Khalilovskoye), bauxite (the Krasnaya Shapochka group of deposits), Polunochnoye deposit of manganese ores, etc.
Placer and primary deposits of precious metals are very numerous here: gold (Berezovskoye, Nevyanskoye, Kochkarskoye, etc.), platinum (Nizhniy Tagilskoye, Sysertskoye, Zaozernoye, etc.), silver. Gold deposits in the Urals have been developed since the 18th century.
From the non-metallic minerals of the Urals, deposits of potassium, magnesium and table salts (Verkhnekamskoye, Solikamskoye, Sol-Iletskoye), coal (Vorkuta, Kizelovsky, Chelyabinsk, South Ural basins), oil (Ishimbayskoye) stand out. Deposits of asbestos, talc, magnesite, diamond placers are also known here. In the trough near the western slope of the Ural Mountains, minerals of sedimentary origin are concentrated - oil (Bashkortostan, Perm region), natural gas (Orenburg region).
Mining is accompanied by fragmentation of rocks and pollution of the atmosphere. The rocks extracted from the depths, getting into the zone of oxidation, enter into various chemical reactions with atmospheric air and water. Products chemical reactions enter the atmosphere and water bodies, polluting them. Ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, the chemical industry and other industries contribute to the pollution of atmospheric air and water bodies, so the state of the environment in the industrial regions of the Urals is of concern. The Urals is the undoubted "leader" among the regions of Russia in terms of environmental pollution.
GEMS
The term "gems" can be used extremely broadly, but specialists prefer a clear classification. The science of gemstones divides them into two types: organic and non-organic. organic origin.
Organic: Stones are created by animals or plants, for example, amber is fossilized tree resin, and pearls mature in shellfish shells. Other examples include coral, jet and tortoiseshell. Bones and teeth of terrestrial and marine animals were processed and used as material for making brooches, necklaces and figurines.
Inorganic: durable minerals of natural origin with a constant chemical structure. Most gemstones are inorganic, but of the thousands of minerals extracted from the bowels of our planet, only about twenty are awarded the high title of "gem" - for their rarity, beauty, durability and strength.
Most gemstones are found in nature in the form of crystals or their fragments. To get to know the crystals better, just sprinkle a little salt or sugar on a piece of paper and look at them through a magnifying glass. Each grain of salt will look like a small cube, and a grain of sugar will look like a miniature tablet with sharp edges. If the crystals are perfect, all their faces are flat and sparkle with reflected light. These are typical crystalline forms of these substances, and salt is indeed a mineral, and sugar refers to substances of plant origin.
Almost all minerals form crystal facets, if in nature they had the opportunity to grow in favorable conditions, and in many cases, when purchasing gemstones in the form of raw materials, you can see these facets in part or in full. The edges of crystals are not a random game of nature. They appear only when the internal arrangement of atoms has a certain order, and give more information about the geometry of this arrangement.
Differences in the arrangement of atoms within crystals cause many differences in their properties, including such as color, hardness, ease of splitting and others, which the amateur must take into account when working stones.
According to the classification of A. E. Fersman and M. Bauer, groups of precious stones are divided into orders or classes (I, II, III) depending on the relative value of the stones combined in them.
Gems of the 1st order: diamond, sapphire, ruby, emerald, alexandrite, chrysoberyl, noble spinel, euclase. They also include pearls - a precious stone of organic origin. Pure, transparent, even dense tone stones are highly valued. Poorly colored, cloudy, with cracks and other imperfections, stones of this order can be valued lower than gems of the II order.
Gems of the II order: topaz, beryl (aquamarine, sparrowite, heliodor), pink tourmaline (rubellite), phenakite, demantoid (Ural chrysolite), amethyst, almandine, pyrope, uvarovite, chromium diopside, zircon (hyacinth, yellow and green zircon), noble opal. With exceptional beauty of tone, transparency and size, the listed stones are sometimes valued along with precious stones of the 1st order.
Gems of the III order: turquoise, green and polychrome tourmalines, cordierite, spodumene (kunzite), dioptase, epidote, rock crystal, smoky quartz (rauchtopaz), light amethyst, carnelian, heliotrope, chrysoprase, semi-opal, agate, feldspars (sun stone , moonstone), sodalite, prehnite, andalusite, diopside, hematite (bloodstone), pyrite, rutile, amber, jet. Only rare species and specimens are of high value. Many of them are so-called semi-precious in terms of application and value.
The Urals have long amazed researchers with an abundance of minerals and its main wealth - minerals. What is there in the underground pantries of the Urals! Extraordinarily large hexagonal crystals of rock crystal, amazing amethysts, rubies, sapphires, topazes, wonderful jaspers, red tourmaline, the beauty and pride of the Urals is a green emerald, which is valued several times more expensive than gold.
The most "mineral" place in the region is Ilmeny, where more than 260 minerals and 70 rocks have been found. About 20 minerals were discovered here for the first time in the world. The Ilmensky mountains are a real mineralogical museum. Here there are such precious stones as: sapphire, ruby, diamond, etc., semiprecious stones: amazonite, hyacinth, amethyst, opal, topaz, granite, malachite, corundum, jasper, solar, moon and Arabic stone, rock crystal, etc.
Rock crystal, colorless, transparent, usually chemically pure, almost without impurities, a kind of low-temperature modification of quartz - SiO2, crystallizing in a trigonal system with a hardness of 7 and a density of 2.65 g / cm3. The word "crystal" itself comes from the Greek word "crystalloss", which means "ice". Scientists of antiquity, starting with Aristotle and including the famous Pliny, were convinced that "in the fierce Alpine winter, ice turns into stone. The sun is not able to melt such a stone later ...". And not only the appearance, but also the ability to always remain cool contributed to the fact that this opinion lasted in science until the end of the 18th century, when the physicist Robert Boyle proved that ice and crystal are completely different substances by measuring the specific gravity of both. The internal structure of ROCK CRYSTAL is often complicated by twin intergrowths, which significantly worsen its piezoelectric homogeneity. Large pure single crystals are rare, predominantly in voids and fissures of metamorphic shales, in voids of various types of hydrothermal veins, and also in chamber pegmatites. Homogeneous transparent single crystals are the most valuable technical raw material for optical devices (spectrograph prisms, lenses for ultraviolet optics, etc.) and piezoelectric products in electrical and radio engineering.
Rock crystal is also used for the manufacture of quartz glass (raw materials of lower grades), in artistic stone-cutting art and for jewelry. Rock crystal deposits in Russia are concentrated mainly in the Urals. The name emerald comes from the Greek smaragdos, or green stone. IN ancient Russia known as smaragd. The emerald occupies a privileged place among precious stones, it has been known since ancient times and has been used both as an adornment and in religious ceremonies.
Emerald is a variety of beryl, a silicate of aluminum and beryllium. Emerald crystals belong to the hexagonal syngony. His in green the emerald is obliged to chromium ions, which replaced part of the aluminum ions in the crystal lattice. This gemstone is rarely found in flawless crystals, as a rule, emerald crystals are badly damaged. Known and valued since antiquity, it is used for inserts into the most expensive jewelry, usually processed with a step cut, one of the varieties of which is called emerald.
Quite a few very large emeralds are known that have received individual names and have been preserved in their original form, although the largest known weighing 28200 g, or 141,000 carats, found in Brazil in 1974, as well as found in South Africa weighing 4800 g "or 24,000 carats, were sawn and faceted for jewelry inserts.
In ancient times, emeralds were mined mainly in Egypt, in the mines of Cleopatra. Precious stones from this mine settled in the treasuries of the richest rulers ancient world. Emeralds are believed to have been adored by the Queen of Sheba. There is also a legend that the emperor Nero watched the battles of gladiators through emerald lenses.
Emeralds of much better quality than stones from Egypt have been found in dark mica schists, along with other beryllium minerals - chrysoberyl and phenakite, on the eastern slope of the Ural Mountains near the Tokovaya River, about 80 km east of Yekaterinburg. The deposit was accidentally found by a peasant in 1830, noticing several green stones among the roots of a fallen tree. Emerald is one of the stones associated with the Supreme Spirit. It is believed that it brings happiness only to a pure, but illiterate person. The ancient Arabs believed that a person who wears an emerald does not see terrible dreams. In addition, the stone strengthens the heart, eliminates troubles, has a beneficial effect on vision, protects against seizures and evil spirits.
In ancient times, the emerald was considered a powerful talisman of mothers and sailors. If you look at a stone for a long time, then in it, like in a mirror, you can see everything secret and discover the future. This stone is credited with a connection with the subconscious, the ability to turn dreams into reality, to penetrate secret thoughts, it was used as a remedy for the bites of poisonous snakes. It was called the "stone of the mysterious Isis" - the goddess of life and health, the patroness of fertility and motherhood. He acted as a symbol of the beauty of nature. The special protective properties of the emerald are an active struggle against the deceit and infidelity of its owner. If the stone cannot resist bad qualities, it can crack.
DIAMOND - a mineral, a native element, occurs in the form of eight and dodecahedral crystals (often with rounded edges) and their parts. Diamond is found not only in the form of crystals, it forms intergrowths and aggregates, among which there are: bead - fine-grained intergrowths, ballas - spherical aggregates, carbonado - very fine-grained black aggregates. The name of the diamond comes from the Greek "adamas" or irresistible, indestructible. The unusual properties of this stone gave rise to a lot of legends. The ability to bring good luck is just one of the countless properties attributed to the diamond. Diamond has always been considered the stone of winners, it was the talisman of Julius Caesar, Louis IV and Napoleon. Diamonds first came to Europe in the 5th-6th centuries BC. At the same time, diamond gained its popularity as a precious stone relatively recently, only five hundred and a half years ago, when people learned how to cut it. The first similarity of a diamond was possessed by Charles the Bold, who simply adored diamonds.
Today, the classic brilliant cut has 57 facets, and provides the famous "play" of the diamond. Usually colorless or painted in pale shades of yellow, brown, gray, green, pink, extremely rarely black. Brightly colored transparent crystals are considered unique, given individual names and described in great detail. Diamond is similar to many colorless minerals - quartz, topaz, zircon, which are often used as its imitations. Differs in hardness - it is the hardest of natural materials (on the Mohs scale), optical properties, transparency for x-rays, luminosity in x-ray, cathode, ultraviolet rays.
The ruby got its name from the Latin rubeus, meaning red. The ancient Russian names for the stone are yahont and carbuncle. The color of rubies varies from deep pink to deep red with a purple hue. Among the rubies, the most highly valued stones are the color of "pigeon blood".
Ruby is a transparent variety of the mineral corundum, aluminum oxide. Ruby color is red, bright red, dark red or purple red. Ruby hardness 9, glass luster.
The first information about these beautiful stones dates back to the 4th century BC and is found in Indian and Burmese chronicles. In the Roman Empire, the ruby was extremely revered, and was valued much higher than the diamond. In different centuries, Cleopatra, Messalina and Mary Stuart became connoisseurs of rubies, and the ruby collections of Cardinal Richelieu and Marie Medici were once famous throughout Europe.
Ruby is recommended for paralysis, anemia, inflammation, fractures and pain in the joints and bone tissues, asthma, weakness of the heart, rheumatic heart disease, inflammation of the pericardial sac, inflammation of the middle ear, chronic depression, insomnia, arthritis, diseases of the spine, chronic inflammation of the tonsils, rheumatism. Ruby lowers blood pressure and helps to cure psoriasis. Helps with exhaustion of the nervous system, relieves night terrors, helps with epilepsy. Has a tonic effect.
PLANT AND ANIMAL WORLD OF THE URALS
The flora and fauna of the Urals is diverse, but has much in common with the fauna of the neighboring plains. However, the mountainous relief increases this diversity, causing the appearance of altitudinal belts in the Urals and creating differences between the eastern and western slopes.
Big influence the vegetation of the Urals was affected by glaciation. Before the glaciation, more heat-loving flora grew in the Urals: oak, beech, hornbeam, hazel. The remains of this flora are preserved only on the western slope of the Southern Urals. With the advancement to the south, the altitudinal zonality of the Urals becomes more complicated. Gradually, the boundaries of the belts rise higher and higher along the slopes, and in their lower part, when moving to a more southern zone, a new belt appears.
South of the Arctic Circle, the forests are dominated by larch. As it moves south, it gradually rises along the slopes of the mountains, forming the upper boundary of the forest belt. Spruce, cedar, birch join the larch. Near Mount Narodnaya, pine and fir are found in the forests. These forests are located mainly on podzolic soils. There are a lot of blueberries in the grassy cover of these forests.
The fauna of the Ural taiga is much richer than the fauna of the tundra. Elk, wolverine, sable, squirrel, chipmunk, weasel, flying squirrel, brown bear, reindeer, ermine, weasel live here. Otters and beavers are found along the river valleys. New valuable animals settled in the Urals. In the Ilmensky Reserve, the acclimatization of the spotted deer was successfully carried out, and the muskrat, beaver, deer, muskrat, raccoon dog, American mink, and Barguzin sable were also settled.
In the Urals, according to the difference in heights, climatic conditions, there are several parts:
Polar Ural. The mountain tundra is a harsh picture of stone placers - kurums, rocks and remnants. Plants do not create a continuous cover. Lichens, perennial grasses, creeping shrubs grow on tundra-gley soils. The animal world is represented by arctic fox, lemming, snowy owl. Reindeer, white hare, ptarmigan, wolf, ermine, weasel live both in the tundra and in the forest zone.
The subpolar Urals are distinguished by the highest heights of the ridges. Traces of ancient glaciation are more clearly visible here than in the Polar Urals. On the crests of the mountains there are stone seas and mountain tundra, which is replaced by mountain taiga down the slopes. The southern border of the Subpolar Urals coincides with 640 N. A natural national park has been formed on the western slope of the Subpolar Urals and the adjacent regions of the Northern Urals.
The Northern Urals has no modern glaciers; it is dominated by medium-altitude mountains, the slopes of the mountains are covered with taiga.
The Middle Urals is represented by dark coniferous taiga, which is replaced by mixed forests in the south, and linden massifs in the southwest. The Middle Urals is the kingdom of mountain taiga. It is covered with dark coniferous spruce and fir forests. Below 500 - 300 m they are replaced by larch and pine, in the undergrowth of which grow mountain ash, bird cherry, viburnum, elderberry, honeysuckle.
NATURAL UNICOMS OF THE URALS
Ilmensky ridge. The highest height is 748 meters, it is unique in the richness of its bowels. Among the almost 200 different minerals found here, there are rare and rare ones not found anywhere else in the world. For their protection, in 1920, a mineralogical reserve was created here. Since 1935 this reserve has become complex, now all nature is protected in the Ilmensky reserve.
The Kungur ice cave is a magnificent creation of nature. This is one of the largest caves in our country. It is located on the outskirts of a small industrial city Kungur, on the right bank of the Sylva River, in the bowels of a stone mass - Ice Mountain. The cave has four tiers of passages. It was formed in the thickness of rocks as a result of the activity of groundwater, which dissolved and removed gypsum and anhydrite. The total length of all surveyed 58 grottoes and passages between them exceeds 5 km.
Environmental problems: 1) The Urals is the leader in environmental pollution (48% - mercury emissions, 40% - chlorine compounds). 2) Of the 37 polluting cities in Russia, 11 are located in the Urals. 3) Technogenic deserts have formed around 20 cities. 4) 1/3 of the rivers are devoid of biological life. 5) 1 billion tons of rocks are extracted annually, of which 80% goes to the dump. 6) Special danger - radiation pollution (Chelyabinsk-65 - plutonium production).
CONCLUSION
Mountains are a mysterious and still little known world, uniquely beautiful and full of dangers. Where else can you get from the scorching summer of the desert into the harsh winter of snow in a few hours, hear the roar of a wildly roaring stream under the overhanging rocks in a gloomy gorge into which the sun never looks. Pictures flickering outside the window of a car or car will never let you fully feel this formidable splendor ...
There is no such density of tourist facilities as in the Bakhchisarai region anywhere in the world! Mountains and the sea, rare landscapes and cave cities, lakes and waterfalls, secrets of nature and mysteries of history. Discoveries and the spirit of adventure... Mountain tourism here is not complicated at all, but any trail pleases with clean springs and lakes.
Adygea, Crimea. Mountains, waterfalls, herbs of alpine meadows, healing mountain air, absolute silence, snowfields in the middle of summer, the murmur of mountain streams and rivers, stunning landscapes, songs around the fires, the spirit of romance and adventure, the wind of freedom are waiting for you! And at the end of the route, the gentle waves of the Black Sea.
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