Siberian Forests

The wooded southern Urals rise east of the Belaya River, their ridges cut by valleys that carry streams toward the larger river systems. During the eighteenth century new industrial settlements appeared among these mountains: the Beloretsk ironworks was founded on Bashkir land in 1762, and began smelting iron in 1767. To the west, Meleuz developed as a post settlement on the Orenburg road. Between them lay the forest and upland country of the southern Urals.