848 



T. KELT ON THE STEPPES OF SOUTHERN RUSSIA. 



diluvial clay, and most of the irregularities of the Carboniferous 

 rocks levelled up by it. 



Northward from Nikitofka the country gradually lowers again, 

 and near the city of Karkov is only about 400 feet above the level 

 of the sea. Below 800 feet it is thickly covered with the diluvial 

 clay, and the bed-rocks are seldom seen. 



Karkov is principally built on the alluvial plain of a tributary of 

 the Don. The river has cut through the diluvium down to rocks 

 of Cretaceous age. Two branches of the stream join at the city. 

 On the hill between the two, extensive Government buildings were 

 being erected when I was there ; and in the excavations for the 

 foundations of these and some adjoining sand-pits I obtained the 

 following section (fig. 5). 



Fig. 5. — Section near Karkov, (Scale 50 feet to 1 inch.) 



Black earth ^2SSSS5*| 3 feet . Black soil. 



5 feet. Bandy reddish clay. 



Diluvium 



Sand 



Cretaceous 



I 1(1 



/I'll 



4 feet. Whitish calcareous clay. 



20 feet. Stiff clay with vertical joints, unstratified, 

 sandy near base. 



10 feet. J Dark grey loess-like clay. 



5 feet. Yellowish-brown clay. 

 Irregular bed of clean yellow sand. 



Fine-grained soft unstratified chalk marl. 



From Karkov westward, all the way to the Russian frontier at 

 Wolochisk, the traveller passes for hundreds of miles continuously 

 over the diluvial beds, exepting when he crosses some of the valleys 

 of the larger rivers, which have cut down through it to the older 

 rocks. In going and returning between "Wolochisk and Karkov, a 

 distance of about GOO miles by railway, I passed one way in day- 

 light much of thai which the other I missed seeing in the night- 

 time ; and although I was constantly on the outlook, I only saw 

 two exposures where the bed-rocks came to the surface, although 

 cuttings through the rolling steppes were numerous. Whenever 

 the older rocks were seen, as at Olviopol, on the river Bug, it was 

 evident that they had been worn into valleys and hills before the 

 outspread of the diluvium, and that the flatness of the country was 

 due to the latter, the old irregularities having been filled up by it. 



I found at Wolochisk, in some clay that was thrown out of a pit, 

 which was being sunk in the diluvium for a well, some shells of 

 Succinea and Pupa. They came from a depth of about 7 feet 

 from the surface, and were imbedded in stiff yellowish-brown un- 

 stratified clay, throughout which were also scattered some small 

 angular pieces of limestone. Wolochisk is situated on the high steppo 

 which stretches away to the east in a great flat expanse of country. 



