Information respecting Scientific Travellers. 289 



MR. MURCHISOn's SECOND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF RUSSIA. 



To Richard Taylor^ Esq. 

 Dear Siii, 



It was my earnest wish to have conjphed earlier with your 

 request when I left this country, to send you from the spot 

 some account of my distant wanderings ; but the desire to 

 avoid communicating early conceptions which might be mo- 

 dified by subsequent observation, induced me to stay my pen 

 until I could offer something worthy of a place in your An- 

 nals. The short sketch which follows was written at Moscow 

 near the close of the journey, and is, with some very slight 

 alterations, the translation of a letter addressed to M. Fischer 

 de Waldheim, the venerable and respected President of the 

 Society of Naturalists of that metropolis. Since then, besides 

 the official report to the Minister of Finance, the Count de 

 Cancrine, 1 have submitted to His Imperial Majesty, a tabu- 

 lar view of all the formations in Russia, accompanied by a 

 general map and a section from the Sea of Azof to St. Peters- 

 burgh. These documents, which will be engraved in the 

 course of the winter, are to be considered only as the prelude 

 to a long memoir with full illustrations of the organic re- 

 mains, mineral structure and physical features of the country, 

 which will be laid before the Geological Society of London, 

 as soon as, with the assistance of my fellow-labourers, I shall 

 have prepared the materials for the public eye. In the mean 

 time the friends of science must be happy to learn, that the 

 Emperor, his ministers and officers have powerfully and kind- 

 ly contributed to these results by every possible aid and 

 support which geologists could receive. Desirous that this 

 inquiry should be rendered as perfect as circumstances will 

 admit. His Imperial Majesty has graciously authorized the Mi- 

 nister of Finance, the Count de Cancrine, to permit Count 

 Keyserling to visit this country during the winter, to coope- 

 rate with myself, whilst General Tcheffkine, the chief of the 

 Staff of the Mining Corps, and so well known to many of my 

 English friends, has obtained permission for Lieut. Koksharoff 

 to be among us for a season, to complete his studies, and ac- 

 quire a correct knowledge of those British strata with which 

 the deposits of our ancient allies and kind friends have been 

 compared. 



I remain, dear Sir, yours most faithfully, 



in Belgrave Square, RoDEUlCK ImpeY MuRCHISON. 



Nov. 5, 1841. 



Ann. ^ May. N. Hist. Vol. viii. U 



