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



Of these the rock or mount Bogdo is the most remarkable, being- eight versts 

 round and nearly five hundred feet high (in part perpendicular) above the 

 plain. The hills of Chapchachy *, Minggan, Khonggor, Arsagarf, and that 

 of Inderskoy %, beyond the Oural river, are of a similar character, and gene- 

 rally contain salt lakes : Yelton and other considerable salt lakes occur at a 

 distance from them. 



Although this theory of an extension of the Mediterranean Sea may be on 

 the whole correct, il would obviously be vain to attempt any detailed account 

 of the former condition of this tract of country, till accurate levels and surveys 

 shall have been taken of the entire steppe §. The traditionary idea among 

 the ancients that there was a communication between the two seas by means 

 of the river Phasis, though false in itself, may have been founded on the ex- 

 istence of a strait at no greater distance from the Phasis than the Manych, 

 which is the most likely situation for it \\. Indeed the communication between 

 the two seas could never have been much more than a strait ; and the term 

 river would hardly be an objection to this idea. The actual enlargement of 

 the Caspian towards the north, and its communication at that end with the lake 

 Aral, formerly much larger, may also account in some degree for the ancient 

 notion of its opening into a northern ocean ; especially if we consider that 

 in the oriental geography of the ancients, the north-east seems commonly to 

 have been mistaken for the north, and thus to have occasioned the erroneous 

 disposition of the Caspian in their maps with regard to the cardinal points. 



The Caucasus is a primitive chain, containing in many places columnar 

 trap **. The older secondary rocks on its northern border, are a continuation 

 of those which form the highest mountains on the south coast of the Crimea^^ 

 where primitive rocks are wholly wanting. These mountains are principally 

 composed of slate, with a conglomerate, and older limestones, in which the hard 

 oolite is apparently insulated. Behind these are chalk and flint, with pyritical 



* Graelin, vol. ii. p. 8; also Pallas 1st Voy. vol. iii. p. 667; aad 2d Voy. chap. 7. 



t Pallas 2d Voyage. % Pallas 1st Voyage. 



§ The Survey by Engelhardt and Parrot, from the mouth of Couban to that of the Terek, 

 crosses an interesting line of country, and makes the Caspian Sea to lie in a hollow ; its level 

 being, according to their measurement, 54.2 toises lower than that of the Black Sea. This suffi- 

 ciently proves the steppe, though comparatively even, to be by no means level. 



II See Strabo ; and Pliny, who speaks more directly to the point. Hist. Nat. lib. vi. 



** See Reineggs' Travels in the Caucasus, in German. — It is much to be regretted that no 

 translation exists of the greater part of the travels in Russia. Pallas alone of the older travellers 

 has appeared in English, and with Gmelin and Biberstein has been translated into French ; 

 but Reineggs, Krasheninikof, Giildensfadt, Falk, Lipekhin, Renovanz, Georgi, Hermann, En. 

 gelhardt, and Parrot, are still to be read only in German or Russian. 



