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



place impede the navigation of one of the principal channels of communication 

 between the northern and central governments of Russia. Immediately above 

 the town the hills rise to a very considerable height^ and are much more varied 

 in their forms than in the neighbourhood of Valday. As the river, for nine or 

 ten versts above the town, runs between lofty and precipitous cliffs, excellent 

 sections of the strata are exposed, more particularly in three spots; the Upper 

 Fall, the Lower Fall, and a sort of gorge in the hills between the lower fall 

 and the town. This goi'ge I shall describe first, as it occurs first on quitting- 

 Borovichy. It is proper to say, that the only rock seen in situ on the banks 

 of the river at Borovichy is a red and grey marbled clay ; it resembles both 

 the red marl of central Russia, and some of the coloured varieties of the 

 Esthonian clay : its situation with regard to the vale of Novgorod would 

 connect it apparently with the former. Unfortunately, where the sandstone 

 and calcareous rocks begin, their point of contact with this clay was so com- 

 pletely obscured, at the time I was there, by fragments of chert and other 

 stones in great quantity, that their relative situation was not distinguish- 

 able. On following up the banks of the river, only limestone or sandstone is 

 seen forming its bed, where that becomes free from the accumulations of chert 

 and gravel. In the town of Borovichy, a little below the church nearest to 

 the bridge, and on the right bank, is a deposit of calcareous matter of a snowy 

 whiteness {Lac Lunce) at a considerable height above the level of the river. 



A little above the town, where the first ridge of hills abuts against the 

 stream, is a lofty perpendicular cliff, of which the upper part is a pale reddish 

 sand, which, some feet lower down, presents large patches of a bright yellow 

 and white loose siliceous sand, resembling that on the Ishora near Petersburg. 

 This sand appears to contain sulphur. Below this is a black sandy clay, inti- 

 mately mingled with pyrites, which accompanies a bituminous clay bed that 

 has long passed in the neighbourhood for a sure indication of coal. Con- 

 nected with this pyrites and coaly clay, is a rugged ironstone containing 

 charred wood; a fossil which also occurs in small fragments entangled in white 

 calcareous spar lining cavities in the rock. There appear to be two thin beds 

 of the bituminous clay in this place, one above the fine white sand, the other 

 but little above the water's edge. Flint, though not seen here in situ, is 

 plentiful in detached pieces under the cliffs. 



No good sections are seen for some distance above this spot; but as we ap- 

 proach what is called the lower fall, about six versts above Borovichy, the left 

 bank presents a long perpendicular face to the river. Opposite the lower part 

 of this cliff is a small flat, covered with rolled masses of rocks brought down 

 by the river in its floods. The hills on the right bank sweep round this little 



