13il M. Kupffer's Account of the Rttssian Steppes, 



times susceptible of a high polish, and often presents very 

 agreeable delineations. 



The most remarkable rock in the vicinity of the hot springs 

 is that which composes the Bechtav. This mountain forms a 

 mass perfectly insulated, rising rapidly 3000 feet above the 

 plain, and 4000 above the Black Sea. Its five conical sum- 

 mits have given it the name of Bechtav, which signifies five 

 mountains in the Nogay language. The rock of which it 

 consists is a white trachyte, with small crystals of glassy feld- 

 spar, some grains of quartz, and small needles of green am- 

 phibole disseminated through a white paste of compact feld- 

 spar. The strata of calcareous rock which rest on the foot of 

 this mountain do not appear to have experienced any ulterior 

 change in their primitive position, which proves that they have 

 been deposited since the eruption of the trachytic masses. 



The hot sulphureous springs are several versts distant from 

 Bechtav ; but we find at it base ferruginous springs, which 

 are likewise hot or lukewarm. In the vicinity of Bechtav 

 there exist other mountains which resemble it in their external 

 form and composition, for example, Verblioud, (Camel,) the 

 Lissigora, (mountains of foxes,) the Zmeievaia, (mountains of 

 serpents.) These mountains are insulated, and are not even 

 placed in the same line. 



In advancing from the hot springs to the chain of Caucasus, 

 we do not quit the calcareous country till we descend on the 

 banks of the Malka. We at first see rising on the opposite 

 bank of the river mountains of a particular form : we find up- 

 on their declivities immense and angular blocks, which we had 

 previously found above sandstone with hypanites. The strata 

 themselves, though horizontal, present a great number of ver- 

 tical fissures, and the rocks which they compose are very rug- 

 ged. It is a sandstone characterized by the Ostracites which 

 it contains. The Malka separates for a long time this forma- 

 tion from the calcareous formation of which we have spoken. 

 In our route from the stone bridge over the Malka at Kin- 

 jal, we crossed the sandstone country in a direction from 

 N. to S. It here rises to the height of 5000 or 6000 feet above 

 the sea, and forms plateaus of considerable extent, intersected 

 in every direction by crevices and deep grooves, where the 



