418 Mr. Murchison's Sketch of some of the principal Results 



the Emperor, his ministers and officers have powerfully and 

 kindly contributed to these results by every possible aid and 

 support which geologists could receive. Desirous that this 

 inquiry should be rendered as perfect as circumstances will 

 admit, His Imperial Majesty has graciously authorized the Mi- 

 nister of Finance, the Count de Cancrine, to permit Count 

 Keyserling to visit this country during the winter, to coope- 

 rate with myself, whilst General Tcheffkine, the chief of the 

 Staff of the Mining Corps, and so well known to many of my 

 English friends, has obtained permission for Lieut. Koksharoff 

 to be among us for a season, to complete his studies, and ac- 

 quire a correct knowledge of those British strata with which 

 the deposits of our ancient allies and kind friends have been 

 compared. 



I remain, dear Sir, yours most faithfully, 

 16 Belgrave Square, RODERICK ImpEY MuRCHISON. 



Nov. 5, 1841. 



Letter to M. Fischer de Waldheim, Ex-President of the Society 

 of Naturalists of Moscow. 



{Translation.) 

 My DEAR SlR, Moscow, Oct. 8, 1841. 



As you have taken a lively interest in the success of the 

 geological expedition which I have just completed, accom- 

 panied by my friends M. de Verneuil, Count de Keyser- 

 ling, and Lieutenant Koksharoff, I hasten to communicate to 

 you some of its chief results; and I do so with real pleasure, 

 because in requesting you to present them to the Society of 

 Naturalists of Moscow, I acquit myself of a duty towards a 

 distinguished body which has done me the honour of placing 

 my name in the list of its foreign members. 



The wide extension in the North of Russia of the Silurian, 

 Devonian and Carboniferous Systems, as proceeding from the 

 last year's survey, by the same observers and our friend the 

 Baron A. de Meyendorf, is already known to you from the 

 abstracts of memoirs communicated to the Geological Societies 

 of London and Paris. Our principal objects this year were, — 

 1st. To study the order of superposition, the relations and geo- 

 graphical distribution of the other and superior sedimentary 

 rocks in the central and southern parts of the empire. 2nd. 

 To examine the Ural Mountains, and to observe the manner in 

 which that chain rises from beneath the horizontal formations 

 of Russia. 3rd. To explote the carboniferous region of the 

 Donetz, and the adjacent rocks on the Sea of Azof. 



Our last year's survey had pretty nearly determined the li- 

 mits of the great tract of carboniferous limestone of the North 

 of Russia. On this occasion we have added to its upper part 



