Second Geological Survey of Russia in Europe, 63 



sandstone, forming the base of the carboniferous system, through 

 various bands of limestone, alternating with many courses of sand- 

 stone and shale with numerous seams of coal. 



In this wide carbonaceous tract, coal is extracted by the impe- 

 rial government at two spots only. These pits were first opened in 

 the last century, by Mr. Gascoigne and a small company of English 

 miners, formerly employed by the Russian government. The shaft 

 section at Lissitchi Balka, the chief of these places, and situated to 

 the north of the iron foundries of Lugan and to the east-north-east 

 of Bachmuth, clearly shows that all the best seams of coal of this 

 tract are subordinate to the central part of what English geologists 

 call the mountain limestone. Including small and profitless seams, 

 twelve beds of coal occur at this locality, seven of which are ex- 

 tracted for use. The greater part of the coal is of fair quality, and 

 some is exceedingly good and chiefly bituminous ; and all these 

 beds, with a great amount of shale and sandstone occupying a thick- 

 ness of 800 English feet, are interlaced with thin courses of lime- 

 stone, which are charged with Spirifer Mosquensis, Productus anti- 

 quatus, Orthis lata, O. planissima, Bellerophon, TnrrileUa, Pecten, 

 Nautilus, and a small Trilobite, thus leaving no doubt that the coal 

 is subordinate to the same series of beds which in the North of 

 Russia, beyond the great Devonian axis before described, is void of 

 the mineral, and yet contains the same fossils. In examining these 

 tracts of coal, the authors perceived a close analogy between them 

 and those of the North of England. In the South of England, as in 

 the North of Russia, no coal occurs in the lower or calcareous divi- 

 sion of the system ; but in Yorkshire, Durham and Northumberland, 

 sandstone and shales are interpolated and the mountain limestone 

 is expanded, as on the Donetz, into a great complex series (Yore- 

 dale Rocks of Phillips), including seams of coal. 



In the mineral composition of this carboniferous tract there is 

 a striking analogy to the condition of the great British coal-field of 

 South Wales; for one end of the tract contains anthracitic, and 

 the other bituminous coal, though the strata are, it is believed, of 

 the same age. In the Russian case, the anthracitic masses occupy 

 the eastern end of a tract, the major axis of which trends from 

 west-north-west to east-south-east, and the bituminous coal is on 

 the west. In the tract where the anthracite prevails, the limestone 

 seems to thin out, and there are consequently fewer fossils. 



Unlike the flat and untroubled regions of northern and central 

 Russia, this carboniferous tract is often highly dislocated, and is 

 everywhere thrown into broad and rapid undulations. In the chief 

 mines at Lissitchi Balka the strata dip about 20°, and are there- 

 fore easily worked and drained ; but at Uspengkoi, near Lugan, 

 the beds, which are neither so numerous nor so good as at the 

 former place, are inclined at 50°, and even at 70°, and are full of 

 extensive faults. 



The carbonaceous strata (often worked by the small proprietors 

 and Cossack and Russian peasants) are described in several places, 

 and the same geological relations are shown to prevail, the coal 



