On Mud Volcanoes and Salt Lakes in tlie Crimea. 419 



clayey iron oxide. There is no other cone, and no mud volcano 

 of importance within several miles, and indeed no other on the 

 tongue of land terminated by Gorela. 



About sixteen miles east of Gorela, and on another long 

 tongue of land to the south, on which is the small town of 

 Taman, there is a group of mud volcanoes now very active and 

 of considerable magnitude. The furthest of these to the east 

 are not far from the post station and village of Aktinisorka, 

 and, as is usually the case, there are several together, the 

 number of actual points of eruption being few, but the evi- 

 dences of recent activity plentiful enough. There are four hills 

 extremely well-marked, ranging W.S.W., E.N.B. ; each has 

 certainly thrown out a very large quantity of mud within the 

 last two years. The cones of mud recently erupted vary from 

 five to twenty feet in height. From the cones actually erupting 

 the coulees of mud are large, and the temperature of the mud 

 was 56°. Numerous bubbles of gas are erupted with the mud. 

 Here, as everywhere, I noticed fragments of red clayey iron- 

 stone and marly limestone (always angular), lying on the sides 

 of the cones, and evidently due to the outpouring of the mud ; 

 but the mud itself as erupted was perfectly smooth, soft, and 

 free from the smallest appreciable grit. 



This group of mud volcanoes is at present very interesting. 

 It is called Luvarka. Gorela is well seen from it, as it is the 

 only cone at the extremity of the northern arm of the penin- 

 sula ; but a chain of hills extends, occupying the middle of the 

 strip of land forming the southern arm, and connecting with 

 Luvarka, all of them having been formed or modified by mud 

 eruptions. Many of these are very large, and have craters seve- 

 ral hundred yards in diameter. Some have small detached cones, 

 and the general elevation of the range is nearly three hundred 

 feet. The diameter of several patches of mud recently thrown 

 out varies from a very small space to an area of at least half an 

 acre. In the larger spaces of cracked mud there is sometimes 

 no cone and no appearance of the point of eruption, and no- 

 thing to prove the origin but the peculiar nature of the mud 

 itself, which is always the same, and long remains without any 

 growth upon it. The number of points of eruption along this 

 line of hill, nearly ten miles in length, is far too great to be 

 counted. 



Throughout the Crimea and Taman it is commonly stated, 

 both by the Russians and the Cossacks, that the eruptions of 

 mud from these vents are more numerous and more abundant 

 in hot dry weather than in winter or during rain. It is also 

 said that the bubbles of gas are more frequent at such times, 

 so that occasionally the mud seems to boil. I found this to be 

 the general opinion also at Kertch ; but I was also told there 



