Foreign Geologists : Russian and Northern School. 571 



wJiole of these observations by a general transvei-se section I'rom the 

 sea of Azof to the Baltic. Although we carried with us into Russia, 

 what may be called the geological key of that great country, by which 

 the chief subdivisions and relations of these rock masses have been 

 established, let me say that Russia herself contains naturalists and 

 geologists who would rank high in any land. In palaeontology, 

 Eichwald and Pander have already largely contributed to our know- 

 ledge ; the first, by numerous local works, and recently by his illus- 

 trations of the Silurian strata in the Baltic provinces of Russia ; the 

 latter, by his very original researches into the fossils of the same 

 strata, tlie lithological characters and detailed relations of which 

 were first given by our own Strangways. Professor Asmus of Dorpat 

 is about to enrich us, as I have already stated, with a most curious 

 and elaborate work on the fishes of the Old Red or Devonian system. 



Tiie great steps, however, which Russia is now making in field 

 geology and stratigraphical arrangement, are owing to the clear and 

 well-defined view of this subject which has recently been adopted 

 by the Imperial School of Mines at the suggestion of the energetic 

 chief of their staff. General Tcheffkine, who, under the orders of 

 the enlightened ^Minister, Count Cancrine, has taken the surest 

 means of advancing practical geology, and of rendering manj"^ 

 officers of his corps well acquainted with our subject ; not only by 

 adopting the suggestions of those qualified to judge respecting the 

 formation of geological maps, but by so increasing the fossil collec- 

 tions of the Imperial School of Mines, that it is now furnished with 

 many illustrations of the sedimentary deposits of the empire, even 

 from tile remotest parts of the Altai and the countries bordering on 

 China. It will be my duty and pleasure very shortly to bring before 

 your notice the names of many officers of the Russian corps of Mines, 

 whose labours were of material use to myself and associates in our 

 distant explorations ; but I cannot resist naming at once Colonel Hel- 

 mersen, tiie inspector of the establishment, who whether he be viewed 

 as a jjhysical geographer, a geologist, or as a writer, has rendered most 

 valuable service to Russia by his luminous and attractive descriptions 

 of the structure and outline of various parts of the empire, including 

 the most remote tracts. I beg also to refer you to the five published 

 volumes of the School of Mines, as works containing much excellent 

 matter, and highly creditable both to the government which pro- 

 moted their publication, and to the officers whose memoirs they con- 

 tain. 



In the nu;an time, besides what is doing on tiie Neva, a periodical 

 work on Russia has ajjpeared at Berlin under the title of ' Arcliiv fur 

 W'issentschaftliche KUnde von Russland,' by the enterprising travel- 

 ler A. Erman, of which two parts are i)ublislied. Together with va- 

 rious memoirs on physical geograjihy, history, language, anticpiities, 

 and j)liysics, the editor has added a sketch of the recent advances in 

 the geohjgy.of Russia, and illustrates his views by the publication of 

 a small outline map of the empire. In the estimate; of the geological 

 steps in Russia which various labourers have accomplished, I rejoice 

 to see the name of our countryman Strangways placed where it ought 

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