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



Nishney Novgorod, as well as the greatest part of its tributary streams, (which 

 it is remarkable are much more numerous and considerable on the north side 

 than on the south,) flows through a tract of country almost universally covered 

 with sand. The Oca on the contrary flows through a country of rich red 

 marl, in its strongest and most argillaceous form : neither of the two rivers 

 being sufficiently rapid to disturb immediately the new body of water with 

 which it comes in contact, the effect above described is naturally produced. 



The situation of Nishney Novgorod at the confluence of the two principal 

 rivers of central Russia, and which thus connect the two richest and most 

 populous districts of the empire, the provinces immediately south of Moscow 

 and those on the upper Volga, is singularly adapted for commerce, indepen- 

 dent of its more distant connexions. Here naturally centres not only the 

 greatest internal trade of the empire, but by the lines of navigation I have be- 

 fore detailed, this town has a three-fold communication with the provinces of the 

 north and with the Baltic; and, by means of the Oca and Moskva, with Mos- 

 cow itself. The Kama, which meets the Volga a little lower down, brings 

 all the produce of Siberia, the iron and copper of the Ourals, the gold and 

 silver of Kolyvan, and the beryls, amethysts, and topazes of Nerchinsk. 

 The trade with China is also carried on by means of this river. The com- 

 merce of central Asia, to which we owe the introduction or the recovery of 

 the true Turquoise or Calai'te*, as well as that of the south of Russia and 

 l^ersia, comes partly from Astracan and the Caspian Sea by the navigation of 

 the lower Volga, partly by camvans, which arrive on the banks of that river 

 in different parts of its course. The supply of European commodities is 

 furnished chiefly from Petersburg. These commercial advantages, added 

 to the circumstance of its being placed in the centre of one of the most fertile 

 districts in Russia f, in most of which particulars it has greatly the advantage 



* By far the clearest and most accurate account of this stone, and of the difference between it 

 and the coloured bones which have been mistaken for it, (and for which it has itself been also 

 mistaken,) is to be found in Professor Fischer's treatise on this subject, — Moscow. 1818. 

 ' + When the science of geology shall have made men thoroughly acquainted with the history of 

 the substrata, their attention will probably be directed to the nature and formation of the vege- 

 table soils which cover them; nor will this be the least useful object of their labours. The 

 government of N. Novgorod contains the three soils most common in Russia ; the sand, red 

 marl, and black earth. The sand found in the western parts is the poorest, the other two ar« 

 remarkably fertile. The red marl is chiefly found along the Volga and on the northern side of 

 the government. Besides corn, it produces the finest grass and oaks, as may be seen in one of 

 the finest forests of Russia, near Vasil Soursk, entirely composed of oaks planted by Peter the 

 Great at a time when wood was much more plentiful than it is at present. The black earth 

 makes fine corn land, but seems less adapted to the growth of oak timber, or for fine herbage, 



