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071 the Geological Structure of the Northern and Central Be* 

 gions ofBussia in Europe. By Roderick Impey Murchison, 

 F.R.S., M.R.I.A., President of the Geological Society of 

 London, &c., and E. de Verneuil, Vice-President de la 

 Societe Geologique de France.* 



Thb Memoir, of which the following is an abstract, is the result of a 

 journey through the Northern and Central Governments of Russia in 

 Europe, made during the summer of 1840, a verbal account of some of 

 the cliief points of which, accompanied by a new geological map of those 

 regions, was offered to the public at the last meeting of the British As- 

 sociation for the Advancement of Science, September 1840. 



Introduction. —The authors preface their memoir with a sketch of the 

 condition of geological knowledge concerning the flat and central coun- 

 tries of Russia in Europe anterior to their visit, and shew that the early 

 efforts of Strangwayst had not been followed up by any connected at- 

 tempt to establish the classification and succession of the older sedimen- 

 tary deposits on the true principles of the order of their superposition,, 

 and their distinctions hy organic remains. They point out, however, that 

 certain elements of the subject had been prepared ; first, by the map and 

 descriptions of Strangways ; secondly, by the publication of the palseon- 

 tological works of Fischer de Waldheim, Pander, and Eichwald ; thirdly, 

 by the recent researches of Colonel Helmersen in the Waldai Hills ; and 

 fourthly, by the important zoological distinctions indicated by M. Leo- 

 pold de Buch, who, on hearing of the plan of the voyage of the authors, 

 expressed his belief (from the examination of certain fossils alone) that 

 the triple subdivision of the paliBozoic rocks into the Carboniferous, Old 

 Red, and Silurian systems, as indicated by Mr Murchison,J would be 

 found to prevail in Livonia and Courland. 



After alluding to the vast importance to the Russian empire of a cor- 

 rect knowledge of the subsoil of these flat regions, the authors explained 

 the scheme which they had devised, before they left their own countries, 

 for ascertaining the data required. Aware of the two great difficulties 

 which are opposed to the examination of this region, — the slight altitude 

 of the masses above the sea, and the vast quantity of drift or the sliglit 

 superficial detritus, which obscures the fundamental rocks, — they over- 

 came these obstacles by examining, in succession, the banks of the rivers 

 between the longitude of St Petersburgh and of Archangel, which, flow- 

 ing from N.N.W. to S.S.E., or transverse to the only apparent lines of 



* A copy of this interesting abstract was sent to us by our friend Mr 

 Murchison previously to his leaving England for the Continent — Edit, 

 t Geol. Trans. t Silurian System and Map. 



VOL. XXXI. NO. LXI. JULY X841. I 



