410 W. H. Twelvetrees—The S. W. Slopes of the Urals. 



trict] overlie the Upper Zechstein." He comes to the conclusion ^ 

 that the upper (fluviatile or lacustrine) group with Uniones, plants 

 and Saurian bones, must for the present be placed somewhere between 

 the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic rocks, or equivalent to the Vogesen 

 Sandstone of Subzbach (Lower Trias). This is just the point re- 

 quiring settlement, and every scrap of information bearing upon it 

 is valuable. 



To avoid confusion it may be mentioned that the present govern- 

 ment of Ufa, in which the Bielebee district is situate, was formerly 

 part of the government of Orenburg, and that the mines of Kargala 

 or Kargalinsk, to which I have been referring, are not those of 

 Kargala in the Bielebee district. 



M. Moller believes that certain portions of the Permian field 

 were deposited synchronously. I do not know to what extent he 

 applies this theory ; but when there are on this parallel such plain 

 evidences of superposition, I cannot bring myself to believe that the 

 three divisions of the system or any two of them were laid down at 

 one and the same time. 



A few miles S.E of the village of Jemangoolova, on the Orenburg- 

 Ufa post road, and 20 miles east of the Voskresensky mines office on 

 the Kargalinsk steppe, is the hill of Saragul, the base of which con- 

 sists of the Upper Permian beds. The upper part of the hill is 

 composed of a horizontal or nearly horizontal bed of Jurassic sand- 

 stone crowded with shells, according to Murchison, of the Oxfordian 

 division, but in the opinion of Dr. Trautschold, who is par- excellence 

 the historian of the Eussian Jura, characteristic of a superior 

 horizon in the system. 



In a subsequent communication I hope to furnish a list of the 

 Mollusca found in this patch of Mesozoic rocks. Von Qualen as- 

 serted that he discovered chalk with fossils on the eastern side of 

 this hill, but Mr. Eickard and I have more than once made a fruit- 

 less search for it. The nearest Jurassic strata are about 80 or 100 

 miles to the south, and the position of this isolated cap is suggestive 

 of great denudation over the intervening area, which is occupied by 

 the Permian beds. 



Apart from points of local or special interest, the whole surface of 

 the steppe from here to the Volga, with its comparatively loose 

 materials arranged in more or less horizontal layers, opens up some 

 questions of general importance. Is it possible that this immense 

 plain was raised in its entirety to its present elevation by plutonic 

 force ? Were the organic remains now found in the beds of copper 

 ore restricted to those sinuous channels, which may mark the courses 

 of streams which during various changes of level flowed through land 

 surfaces ? Or were they originally scattered also through the red 

 rocks which are now destitute of them ? Mr. Eickard has noted that 

 the latter rocks lose their colour and much of their iron when in con- 

 tact with the ore beds. The theory which will explain the forma- 

 tion of the copper ore and the preservation of the organic remains in 

 it will have also to account for the sterility of the red sands. 



1 Op eit. p. 304. 



