36 ^ The Hon. Mr. Strangwayb on the Geology of Russia. 



Steppes*. 



Primitive Steppe. — The first part of the steppe district with the geological 

 features of which I am in some degree acquainted, is that primitive tract which 

 stretches in a direction E.S.E. from the upper part of tiie river Bug to the 

 Berda. It occasions the rapids of the Dniepr, and passing to the south along 

 the Bug, terminates within a short distance of the Black Sea. The rock in this 

 tract is a coarse-grained granite, containing garnets, but sometimes passing 

 into trap or syenite. It forms a level country, intersected by deep ravines, 

 and is without woods. In Volhynia, near the borders of Gallicia, it affords a 

 fine white earthy felspar, fit for making porcelain. It occurs at Croupetz on 

 the road to Lemberg. 



Calcareous Steppe. — A series of calcareous rocks accompanies the southern 

 border of the primitive steppe, following the line of the Dniestr and the coasts 

 of the Black Sea. Some large-grained oolites appear near the frontier of 

 Gallicia, as also between the Bug and Dniestr near Tomaspol, where they are 

 very hard and compact ; and again, of a very fine grain, between Bender and 

 Odessa. A shelly limestone, much resembling those of Purbeck and Portland, 

 occupies a large tract between the two rivers before named. 



The only new formation is that of bitumen in the peninsula of Kerch, at the 

 entrance of the sea of Azof, which appears also in the opposite peninsula of 

 Taman, and at the other end of the Caucasian chain, in the promontory of 

 Bacou, on the Caspian Sea. Limestones of secondary formation form a high 

 steppe, in the intermediate space, around the northern edge of the Caucasus, 

 and compose the first ridge of elevated land which appears south of the steppe 

 of the Courna. It appears that the bituminous formation of Bacou, in the 

 peninsula of Abkharon, is comprehended in a ridge of argillaceous shale, 



* The etymology of the word Steppe is a disputed point, even among the Russians ; it may pos- 

 sibly be of Tartar origin. The word steppe is applied generally to any waste land whatever, pro- 

 vided it is not covered with forests. Thus we hear of the high, the low, the rich, the poor, the 

 salt, the sandy, the icy, the stony, and other steppes : districts differing in almost every charac. 

 ter, except in that of being desert. The high steppe is like the Downs of England, but without 

 their fine herbage, being much covered with wormwood. The low steppe, formed by the sinking 

 of the waters of (he Euxine, is sui generis. Some of the small grassy valleys among the Ourals 

 arc called steppes : but the term is applied to no mountainous country within the territory of 

 Russia. Part however of what is generally called the steppe of the Kirghis is mountainous. 

 Some of the tracts lately reclaimed from the waste are still, incorrectly, known by their former 

 name of steppes. In the Russian language, the desert of Africa is called the Ajricansky step. 



