The Hon. Mr. Strangways on the Geology of Russia. 35 



Oural mountains. This sand is of a dull red or green_, and is commonly worked 

 for copper. It contains fossil wood impregnated with copper^ and what are 

 supposed to be casts of cacti, resembling the fossil vegetables of the English 

 coal formation. It sometimes occurs also in the state of a conglomerate. 



In the neighbourhood of Orenburg, where this copper sand is extensively 

 worked, is, according to Falk, a limestone which contains shells, and lies 

 immediately on the granite of the Obschey Sirt, the southern projection of 

 the Oural chain. (See Falk, vol. i. p. 182.) The alabaster rock seems to 

 belong to the salt formation ; which, as will be seen, forms islands in the 

 centre of the desert steppe. A salt district, full of saline lakes, exists on the 

 south-east corner of the Ourals, and seems to connect Siberia with European 

 Russia and the steppe of the Kirghis. 



There seems to be no continuous primitive ridge connecting the Oural and 

 Altay mountains. Insulated granitic hills, surrounded by the salt district and 

 partially wooded, are described as existing near the frontier. The mountains 

 in the steppe opposite Orenburg and Orsk, resemble those within the Russian 

 frontier : they contain copper and salt, which latter is worked by the Russians 

 under protection of a fort at lletsk. 



The Oural chain consists of various primitive rocks, remarkable for being- 

 finely and distinctly characterized. Primitive marble exists in many places, 

 but is now little worked; and the southern and eastern parts are celebrated for 

 the beauty of their ornamental jaspers, which occur in large rock masses. 

 The iron and copper mines, and other mineral treasures of the Ourals, are too 

 well known, and have been too often described, to require mention in this 

 place. 



SOUTHERN RUSSIA. 



The secondary rocks, of which I cannot give any detail, are continued 

 across the whole of this country till we arrive at the primitive steppe. Good 

 coal has been found near Toula, where it is worked ; but the quantity is so 

 small, and the difficulty of working it beneath a loose and half-liquid bed of 

 quicksand is so great, that it seems unlikely to be of much utility. Coal has 

 also been worked at Bakhmout, in the government of Katerinoslaf, where it 

 is accompanied by hills of schist, which border the Donetz, as described by 

 Pallas in his Second Voyage. 



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