554 W. F. Hume — I^otes on Russian Geohcjy. 



concludes : — " In the Loess, as we have seen, the shells of molluscs 

 are very often met with, belonging to the species P7«jja muscorum, 

 Siiccinea oblonga, Helix hispida, and Pisidinm Henslotoianum. These 

 usually are found aggregated in special localities. Not seldom also 

 occur in it bones of Mammals, in which I myself have found the 

 remains of Elephas primigenius, Bhinoceros tichorhinus, and Equus 

 fossilis." 



The Mammoth remains which are so numerous in the Don area 

 also hail from this deposit. Indeed, so common are such Mammalian 

 finds, that bones are constantly being brought to light in all parts of 

 the country. 



Thus, whilst I was staying at Hughesevo, the mining centre 

 of the New Russia Company, Mr. Williams, the mines manager, 

 showed me two large bones which had been obtained whilst con- 

 structing a dam in the neighbourhood. These proved to be a femur 

 and a tibia, which from the descriptions given of the other parts 

 which were not preserved must have been those of a Bos. In 

 the same locality I obtained shells of Pupa, probably from shape 

 and size, of Pupa muscorum. 



Again, in the N. of the Kharkoflf Government, during excava- 

 tions being carried out on the estates of a proprietor living near 

 Bielie-Polie, a fine Equus tooth was met with. These are but two 

 examples, taken from widely-separated points, going to prove how 

 wide-spread the Mammalian fauna must once have been, and how 

 complete is its annihilation. The fauna of the Russian Loess there- 

 fore resembles that mentioned by Braun as occurring in the Rhine 

 Valley, and at Toulouse, while the Mammalian remains no less 

 recall those met with all over the European continental area. 



Theories as to the Origin of Loess. 



Already, in 1845, this deposit had attracted the attention of Sir 

 R. Murchison, but some of the facts which now with longer research 

 have been brought to light, had then escaped his notice. Thus he 

 will not consent to regard the tchornozem (for under this name he 

 includes both the Loess and the Black Earth) as equivalent to the 

 Rhine Loess, because the latter is only found on the sides and 

 bottoms of the great valleys, whereas the tchornozem is found at all 

 levels without relation to the existing form of the land. He also 

 asserts that it has no terrestrial or fluviatile remains (Russia and 

 the Urals, p. 562). He accounts for it as being fine mud or silt, 

 formed in the sea, and extending southwards from the points where 

 the northern icebergs ceased to advance. The marine shells might 

 have been decomposed during slow elevation by aqueous and 

 atmospheric agency. It must, however, in justice be stated that 

 the possibility of its formation in great lakes is suggested. 



Of course, all the evidence at present adduced shows Murchison's 

 view to be entirely untenable, and like the similar ideas propounded 

 by Bennigsen Forder and Fallou for the German Loess, it now 

 possesses a purely historical interest. No doubt it was partly based 

 on the proofs of a greater extension of the Aralo-Caspian and Black 



