180 SIBERIA. 



from the right side al about 210 vorsts from its moiitli. Tiic ihickri'-^^ "f '!■" ''tal seam 

 is 3 feet and it is of good quality. 



The second deposit was discovered opposite the mouth of the river Troubkina which 

 falls into the Nizhnaya Toungouzka from the right side at a distance of about 400 versts 

 from its mouth, 'i'he coal scam is S'/i feet thick and extends for a distance of one verst; 

 the coal is of good ()iiality. Tin' third deposit of coal was found at a distance of 40 versts 

 from the mouth of the river Taimour. which falls into the Xizhnaya Toungouzka. This deposit 

 consists of two seams, tlie lower of which is one sagene thick. A fourth deposit of coal 

 was fouml on the right bank of the Nizhnaya Toungouzka at 185 versts from its mouth and 

 about 5 versts above the moiitli of the river Koupalnaya. The coal of these seams frequently 

 approaches anthracite in its quality, and in many places the stratification is greatly distorted 

 by trap rocks and the coal transformed into graphite. 



In the government of Irkutsk, coal which is for the greater part brown coal, is known 

 in many places in the southern portion of the government, where fresh water formations of 

 the Jurassic system occur. The coal seams which are two feet and more thick at the outcrop, 

 lie among strata of schistose clay and yellow calcareous sandstone. At the present time up 

 to 75 outcrops of coal are known in the soulheni half of the government of Irkutsk. ^laiiy 

 of these seams deserve attention, either for their thickness or for the quality of their coal. 

 I'rospectings for coal have frequently been carried on in the neighbourhood of the village of 

 Ousolie, with a view to furnishing the Irkutsk salt works with fuel. In these explorations 

 coal seams up to 3'/^ feet thick were, amongst others, discovered. But in all probability the 

 greatest importance will be ascribed to the deposits of coal along the river Oka; above the 

 village of Ziminsk where a whole series of coal seams from 1 foot to 1 sagene thick out- 

 crop on the high right bank of the river. Small exploratory works showed the presence 

 of a store of 200 million pouds of coal in two places. It is a brown coal, with a large 

 percentage of volatile matter, and it gives a powdery coke. After exposure to the atmosphere 

 it, for the greater part, disintegrates into small peices, and resembles the coal of the 

 Moscow basin in its qualities. 



In the Yakutsk region, coal-bearing deposits occur along the whole middle course of 

 the Lena and its tributaries and beyond, up to the lowlands of the Lena. Various modifica- 

 tions of this formation stretch out fiom the river Bolshaya Botama to the village of Bou- 

 loun, which is at a distance of about 100 versts from the mouth of the Lena ; or for a 

 distance of 1,800 versts down that river. These formations are also observable on the one side 

 of the Lena, on the banks of the river Viluya, beyond the mouth of the Markha which falls 

 into it, for a distance of 600 versts; and on the other side of the Lena, on the banks of 

 the river Aldan, beyond the mouth of the Maya, for a distance of 400 versts, and from the 

 town of Yakutsk to the north-east within 100 versts of the Verkhoyansk mountain chain, 

 which also forms over 400 versts. AVith respect to the geological period of these deposits, 

 they, like those of the government of Irkutsk, are considered as belonging to the Jurassic 

 system. Coal has been found in the far eastern extremity of Siberia, on the shores of the 

 Gizhiginsk and Penzhinsk bays, and in several localities on the western shore of the penin- 

 sula of Kamchatka. 



