460 Proc eedings of Philosophical Societies. [J u n k, 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



March 5.— The paper entitled " Outline of the Geology of 

 the South of Russia," by the Honourable William T. H. Fox, 

 Strangways, MGS. was concluded. 



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

 E. and SE. 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 Hamuis, 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 Dniesters 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 calcareous 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. 



3. Northern calcareous steppe of the Don is composed of sand- 

 stone to between Cherkask and the mouth of the Donetz ; here 

 commences an immense tract of a peculiar modern shelly lime- 

 stone ; the steppe limestone probably extends across the Ukraine, 

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



4. S. and SE. 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 ex- 

 tending throughout Wallachia, Bessarabia, the south of Mol- 

 davia, and Government of Kherson. The trough or basin be- 

 fore 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, comprehending 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 ma- 

 rine plants and other causes, have been supposed to have once 



