The Hon. Mr. Strangways on the Geology of Russia. 3 



the Oural mountains. The northern parts* of this district are said to consist 

 principally of trap rocks^ the central of gneiss and other varieties of schistose 

 rocksj while the southern border is entirely composed of granite. Even these 

 subdivisions have their respective analogies with the different primitive forma- 

 tions of Norway and Sweden, and they affect a line of bearing nearly parallel 

 to that of the whole district, as pointed out above. This will be better under- 

 stood by a reference to the map. I will now mention some of the most re- 

 markable places, beginning from the westward. 



Pargas. — This name is given to a parish comprehending several consider- 

 able islands in the Gulf of Bothnia, about ten miles south of Abo. These 

 islands present, in general, the same features as the main land ; being 

 usually long steep ridges of gneiss, crowned with fir trees and birch. In 

 fact, they are but continuations of the hills of the continent, the valleys 

 between which are above the level of the sea ; while the channels between 

 the islands may be considered as similar valleys below that level. The 

 scenery is much more picturesque than it usually is in the inland parts of 

 Finland, not only from the additional beauty of the water, and numerous ves- 

 sels continually passing between Abo and the Baltic, but from the absence 

 of those boggy plains which abound on the continent. The rocks, for the 

 most part, are cut down perpendicularly, or nearly so, to the water's edge, 

 leaving little or no strand at their foot. The soil on some of the larger islands 

 is reckoned of a quality superior to that on the main land ; those near the 

 coast are generally inhabited; and the villages, farms, churches, and count- 

 ing-houses of some of the wealthier inhabitants of Abo contribute not a httle 

 to embellish and enliven the scene. 



On one of the principal islands of the parish of Pargas, but not that where 

 the church and village are situated, from which the groupe derives its name, 

 is found the mineral which has been called pargasite from its locality. It 

 occurs in one or more large veins of milk-white primitive limestone, which 

 traverse the whole island from side to side. This limestone, though rather 

 too fragile and coarse-grained to deserve the name of marble, is nevertheless 

 possessed of considerable beauty, both from the purity of its own texture and 

 the brightness of colour of the various minerals it contains. It is sometimes 

 clouded with a delicate yellow, sometimes with a bluish grey, (owing to the 



* On the shores of the White Sea are found bunches of crystals of a sandstone resembling that 

 of Fontainebleau, but of a browner colour. They usually appear to spring from a central ball, 

 which is probably only the remains of a softer mass that once filled the space between the crystals, 

 but is now washed out. 



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