136 Mr KupfhVs Account of the Russian Steppes, 



ed on the height of Kharbis. This height, which receives its 

 name because this plateau, which forms only a hollow sur- 

 rounded with higher mountains, rises a few hundred feet above 

 the banks of the river Kharbis, forms, where it advances to the 

 river, and at the same time where it advances towards the cen- 

 tral chain, that is, towards the south, a precipice where the 

 strata of which it is composed are laid bare. We see distinct 

 alternations of beds of coal some inches thick, with a quartzy 

 and yellowish sandstone. At some distance to the south, be- 

 fore the eye arrives at the central chain, or rather at Elbrouz 

 itself, which appears from this in all its grandeur, there is seen 

 rising to a very considerable height a very steep mountain, 

 with a rugged crest, whose flanks are covered with rocky de- 

 bris. This mountain has the same physiognomy as the trachy- 

 tic mountains which compose the central chain. It forms part 

 of a particular chain which runs parallel to the central chain, 

 and which we must ascend in approaching the latter. These 

 mountains, which touch the limit of perpetual snow, are com- 

 posed of a dioritic rock, whose character is so remarkable as to 

 merit a special description. 



After having gone along several precipices which display 

 alternately horizontal beds of sandstone and coal, of which all 

 the district is composed, and whose rugged walls are turned to 

 the central chain, we descend rapidly into a small hollow which 

 separates the Youngouche, (this is the name of the mountain,) 

 from the plateau which surrounds it towards the north. We 

 ascend again very rapidly, in order to reach a height which 

 leans to the south on the Youngouche, and forms, as it were, 

 the first step of it. This height is composed of a sandstone 

 similar in external characters to that which contains the coal 

 strata, but which differs from it considerably in the disposition 

 of its beds, which are highly inclined, and almost perpendicu- 

 lar. These strata are supported against rugged rocks, with 

 which the crest of Youngouche is flanked at its base, and which 

 consist of an argillaceous schistus, and of a conglomerate form- 

 eel of fragmentsof quartz and blackish gray jasper (Lydianstone) 

 cemented by a talcose substance of a pale yellow-green colour, 

 unctuous to the touch, and of a compound and schistose tex- 

 ture. At some points this conglomerate takes the appearance 



