232 Revieivs — Prof. V. Amalitzkij — The Perniian of Russia. 



Vytegra district, and more eastward at Oust-Pinega, from the Upper 

 Carboniferous sandstones with Spirifer mosquensis, quite up to the 

 Lower Permian. The Upper Permian deposits, on the other hand, 

 shown on the banks of the lower part of the Eiver Suchona and near 

 the sources of the Little Dwina of the North, exhibit fresh-water 

 characters very distinctly. They consist of nearly horizontal beds 

 of marl with intercalated lenticular beds of sand and sandstone. 

 For a long period these strata were considered to be destitute of 

 fossils ; none were found in them by Murchison, Keyserling, or 

 Blasius, and they were neglected by the Eussian geologists by I'eason 

 of this reputed barrenness. 



Professor Amalitzky has, however, demonstrated by his dis- 

 coveries during the last four years that they contain a rich flora 

 and fauna. Amongst the plant remains the most important are 

 Glossopteris indica, Gl. angustifolia, (Vertebraria), Gangamopteris 

 major, Teeniopteris, Sphenopteris, Callipteris cf. conferta, besides 

 Equisetum, Noeggerathiopsis, and forms like Scliizoneurece. The fauna 

 includes a number of fresh-water lamellibranchs, such as Palceomutela 

 Inostranzewi, P. Keyserlingi, P. Verneuili, Oligodon, Palceanodonta, 

 Carbonicola, Anthracosia, and Anthracomya ; the Crustacean genera 

 JEsiheria and Cypris, together with the plates and impressions of 

 Ganoid fishes. Land animals are represented by amphibians 

 approaching Melanerpeton and Pachygonia, and a great number of 

 bones of theromorphian reptiles belonging to the Pareiasauria and 

 Dicynodontia, amongst which Pareiasaurus and Dicynodoii have been 

 definitely determined, and also forms much resembling Elginia and 

 Gordonia. 



These discoveries have confirmed the opinion of the author as 

 to the great resemblance from a palaeontological point of view 

 between the Continental fresh-water deposits of the Upper Permian 

 and those of the Lower Karoo in Africa and of the Gondwana in 

 India; and he is led to conclude that the compact continent which 

 during the Permian epoch occupied Central and Southern Africa, 

 India, Australia, Argentina, and part of Brazil extended as far as 

 European Eussia, and that the bond which united these countries 

 was on one side the Continental deposits of Gondwana in India and 

 on the other the similar deposits of Kouzniets in Siberia. 



The explorations carried out by Professor Amalitzky during the 

 Summer of 1899, which form the main subject of the present paper, 

 were made at a spot on the steep right bank of the Upper Dwina of 

 the North, near the village of Kotlas. For a distance of about ten 

 kilometres the river bank is composed of Permian rocks overlain by 

 beds of clay, with pebbles and large stones of crystalline rocks, of 

 Post-Pliocene age. The Permian beds have a slight dip towards 

 the N.N.E. ; they consist of a series of marls of very uniform 

 characters ; tlie upper beds are of a reddish-brown tint, with 

 a persistent layer of white siliceo - dolomitic limestone, in some 

 places becoming dolomitic, in others a siliceous rock. These upper 

 marls rest with a slight discordance on lower marls, also reddish- 

 brown, and not dissimilar to the upper beds ; a thickness of about 



