EXCURSIONS OF THE GEOLOGICAL CONGRESS. 229 



to-date " outline of the geological features of Russia than has before 

 been attainable. 



The volume was prepared for members attending the congress 

 and presented to them. The very few copies that have reached 

 this country have been brought by American delegates who have 

 lately returned. Whether, or how far, the work will be procur- 

 able hereafter through any ordinary channels does not yet ap- 

 pear. It is to be hoped, however, that at least our scientific institu- 

 tions and libraries may be able to secure copies of so valuable a 

 treatise. 



The general outline of the excursions was as follows: During 

 the month prior to the meeting, a journey to the celebrated mining 

 and mineral regions of the eastern Urals, the route being from Mos- 

 cow by rail south and east, by Penza to Oufa, passing through the 

 Urals to Zlatoust; then by the Ural Railway, which runs parallel 

 to the mountains on the Asiatic side, north to Ekaterinbourg and the 

 mining district of Tagilsk ; thence recrossing the Urals to Perm, and 

 from there by steamer down the Kama and up the Volga to Nijni 

 Novgorod and back to Moscow by rail. 



After the congress another great trip was arranged for — to south- 

 ern Russia, the Caspian, the Caucasus, and the Crimea; this com- 

 prised several selections or " variants." The main route was from 

 Moscow to Vladikavkaz in the Caucasus, one section going by rail 

 through the valley of the Don; another proceeding by Kiev and 

 taking the Dnieper valley; and a third going to Nijni Novgorod, 

 and by steamer down the Volga to Astrakhan and on the Caspian 

 Sea to Petrovsk; and all meeting at Vladikavkaz. From this point 

 the route led by the great military road of Georgia, south to Tiflis, 

 and thence to visit the oil deposits at Baku on the Caspian, return- 

 ing by Tiflis to Batoum on the Black Sea, and by steamer to the 

 Crimea, the excursion breaking up at Sebastopol. 



A number of side trips to points of special interest were further 

 associated with these excursions, and there were also two shorter 

 excursions — one to Esthonia and one to Finland — for the study of 

 early Palaeozoic and Archaean rocks and glacial deposits. 



These outlines are necessary in order to give an idea of the extent 

 of country covered by the series of guidebooks that compose this 

 notable volume. The first monograph is a description of the geology 

 of Moscow and its environs, by Professor Nikitin; the last, by Prof. 

 F. Schmidt, deals similarly with the vicinity of St. Petersburg. 

 The remaining thirty-two take up seriatim the districts traversed 

 by the several excursions and " variants." Nearly all of them are 

 freely illustrated with sections, maps, diagrams, etc.; some have 

 interesting views and photographs, and the more important have 



