134 M Kupffer's Account of the Russian Steppes, 



and oxide of manganese, all of which are so small in quantity 

 that the works were soon abandoned. 



It was in our excursion to Kinjal and to the Ourda that I 

 had occasion to study the secondary formations which were 

 older than the sandstone with ostracites. We have already 

 seen that this sandstone rests immediately on a calcareous rock 

 in which I have not met with any fossil remains. On the Hai- 

 macha, where we halted the 10th of July, this limestone, 

 though generally compact, had small lamellae of carbonate of 

 lime disseminated through it. The rocks which follow the 

 banks of the lower Ourda are composed of this calcareous for- 

 mation, which appears to have a great extent, as we shall pre- 

 sently see. I shall call it limestone with gryphites, for I after- 

 wards met with very large and beautiful specimens of this fos- 

 sil in a limestone rock which I believe belongs to the same 

 formation. I have shown in the historical part that the Inal, 

 the Kinjal, and the Bermamuc, compose a particular chain of 

 mountains, the highest of the secondary mountains, and the 

 nearest to the central chain. These mountains form, so to 

 speak, the rugged edges of a long and wide crevice, from the 

 bottom of which rises the trachytic chain, against which the 

 secondary formations which I have described would appear 

 to lean, if they were not separated by deep vallies, where they 

 are seen to perforate several intermediate rocks. 



The Kinjal and the Bermamuc, which we have examined 

 closely, are composed of this grey and compact calcareous rock 

 which ought to be referred to the limestone with gryphites, 

 though in those same points I have not met with those fossils 

 which in lower points, and in precipices, turned to the central 

 chain, are mixed with sand, and become at last a true sand- 

 stone, still older than the sandstone with ostracites. These 

 two formations rise to the height of 7000 or 8000 feet above 

 the level of the ocean. 



It was in descending towards the upper Ourda, which here 

 flows in a deep crevice, that I met with the first intermediary 

 rocks, and at the same time with lava and amphibolic rocks. 



The rocks hitherto mentioned are disposed in horizontal 

 beds, which rise almost insensibly towards the central chain ; 

 bul in the disposition of the intermediary rocks a much greater 



