I. — An Outline of the Geology of Russia, 

 By the Hon. WILLIAM T. H. F. STRANGWAYS, m. g. s. 



[Read March 2, 1821.] 



JjEFORE I enter on a subject of such magnitude as the Geology of 

 Russia, I shall state in few words the plan I mean to pursue in treating it. 

 The vast extent of the country, the little natural connexion of its different 

 parts, and the impossibility of examining with sufficient minuteness the true 

 geological relations of so great a variety of strata in any moderate period of 

 time, prevent my being able to throw into any general system even those 

 formations whose existence, extent, and characters are known to me. The 

 country, however, is very naturally divided into districts, the geological features 

 of which are so distinct, and their actual distance from each other at the 

 same time so considerable, as to allow of their being described separately : 

 were they not politically united, they would have little claim to be considered 

 as the same country. After a short general view, therefore, I shall proceed 

 to examine the details, each under its particular head. 



The two great divisions of the empire, Russia properly so called, and Si- 

 beria, must be considered, geologically, as perfectly independent of each 

 other; the same boundary dividing the two countries and the two tracts of 

 secondary country belonging to them. 



The empire, taken altogether, contains five principal mining districts; two 

 in Europe, two in Asia, and one on the confines of Russia and Siberia. 

 Those in European Russia are the northern or Finnish district, and the cen- 

 tral : the former reaching from the Gulf of Bothnia to the Lake Onega ; the 

 latter stretching in an oblique direction across the country, firom the govern- 

 ment of Kalouga to that of Nishegorod * : — the metal principally worked is 



* The correct name of this government, and of the town from which it derives its name, is 

 Nishney Novgorod, familiarly abbreviated into the simple word Nishney, and frequently written 

 Nishegorod. In each of these words the letters sh are pronounced hard, as the English s in the 

 word leisure. 



VOL. VI. B 



