226 Geological Society. 



The term Steppe is applied to vast tracts of country in the 

 E. and S.E. of Europe. It is neither a heath, nor a moor, 

 nor a down ; wold would give the best idea of it in English, 

 and it is given by the Russians to any waste land which is 

 neither mountainous nor wooded. The Russian Steppes are 

 bounded on the west by the Carpathian chain of Transylvania 

 and the Banat of Temesvar ; on the S. by Mount Haemus, 

 the Tauric Chersonese, and Caucasus; on the E. by the 

 Oural mountains to beyond the Caspian Sea and the sea of 

 Aral ; vaguely to the N. by a line from the mouth of the Kama 

 to the Dniester on the frontiers of Podolia and Kherson. 

 Their length is about 2000 miles, breadth 900. The soil is 

 similar throughout; the geological structure very different. 



A trough or basin stretching across from Perecop to the 

 Caspian, and thence beyond the sea of Aral, forms a natural 

 division of the Steppe into the N. and S. High Steppe; this 

 trough or basin Pallas and others well describe as the low 

 sandy saline steppe, the two former as the high rich calca- 

 reous and granitic steppe. 



The Northern High Steppe admits of five divisions: 

 1. Steppe of red marl, salt and gypsum, lying on both sides 

 the Volga above the reach of Samara. 2. Steppe of Saubof 

 and the middle Volga, from Samara to Tzaritzin ; its northern 

 part consists of the white central limestone, its southern of 

 sandstone which connects it with the steppe of the Don. 

 S. Northern calcareous steppe of the Don is composed of 

 sandstone to between Cherkask and the mouth of the Donetz ; 

 here commences an immense tract of a peculiar modern shelly 

 limestone ; the steppe limestone probably extends across the 

 Ukraine, and is connected with the calc. gross, of Volhynia 

 and Gallicia. 4. S. and S.E. of this occurs the primitive or 

 granitic steppe, a singular instance of a flat tabular granitic 

 country connected, according to Pallas, with the primitive 

 range of the Carpathians, passing the Dniester at Doubosar, 

 and traversing Moldavia. 5. Middle calcareous steppe, of 

 steppe limestone separated by a sandstone from the preceding ; 

 this is a prodigious mass extending throughout Wallachia, 

 Bessarabia, the south of Moldavia, and Government of Kher- 

 son. The trough or basin before alluded to forms the steppe 

 of the old sea, which involves the singular problem of the 

 connexion and extension of the Caspian and Black Seas. To 

 the south of this lies the southern calcareous steppe, compre- 

 hending the Crimea, and stretching to the foot of Caucasus, 

 is composed of steppe limestone resting on calc. gross. The 

 high steppes, from the occurrence of marine plants and other 

 causes, have been supposed to have once formed a vast sea ; 



but 



