422 Mr. Murchison on the Geology of Russia. 



direction it probably connects itself with deposits of the 

 same age in Lithuania and in Courland. This discovery 

 seems, indeed, to have an intimate relation to one which we 

 made in entering Russia early in the spring, near to Schavli 

 in Lithuania, of much red ground and a band of upper Silu- 

 rian rocks. In fact it also explains the cause of the great 

 difference which exists between the deposits of the carbonife- 

 rous basin of the Donetz and those of your Moscow region, 

 now proved to constitute a vast basin. For as the two seas, in 

 which these deposit? were accumulated from high antiquity, 

 were separated by the ancient lands in question, so must we 

 infer that the conditions and nature of their shores, their rivers, 

 their currents and bottoms (on which of course the nature of 

 marine deposits depend), must have been essentially different. 



This discovery also proves the symmetry of the opposite 

 edges of the Moscow basin ; since in advancing from the. 

 governments of Tula and Kaluga on the south, we see the 

 same ascending order as that which we before described 

 in the Waldai Hills on the north. In both tracts the De- 

 vonian or old red rocks, with Holoptychius Nobilissimus^ and 

 many fishes and shells of that system well known in the Bri- 

 tish Isles*, pass under the lowest strata of the carboniferous 

 sera, and serve as a base line to those thin beds of poor coal 

 associated with TJnio sulcatus and Productus gigas (hemispheri- 

 cus, Sow.), which are at present the subject of new researches 

 on the part of the Russian Government. 



The enormous space we traversed and examined, in all 

 between 13 and 14 thousand miles, might well astonish you, if 

 I did not assure you, that the arrangements for this journey, 

 undertaken under the auspices of the Minister of Finance, 

 Count de Cancrine, were admirably prepared by General 

 TchefFkine, whose clear directions, united to that spirit of hos- 

 pitality which characterizes all Russians, and above all the in- 

 habitants of the Ural and Siberia, rendered every enterprise 

 feasible, and enabled us to overcome every obstacle. 



I shall communicate to you at a later date, and before our 

 large memoir is prepared, the general table of the order of su- 

 perposition of all the formations of Russia, with sections f. 



Accept, dear Sir, the assurance of the affection and esteem 

 of your devoted servant, 



Roderick Impey Murchison, 

 President of the Geol. Society of 

 London. 



To His Excellency M. Fischer de Waldheim. 



* See Silurian System, p. 599. 



t These documents, which were laid before His Imperial Majesty in 

 MSS., are now in the hands of the engraver. 



