406 
The Hon. Mr. Strangways on the 
Secondary. 
Blue Clay . * 
Its colour is a pale blue or bluish white, generally with a tinge 
of green. In a few places (as on the Couzminka and on the left 
bank of the stream which flows through the old gardens of 
SoltikofFs Coirova) it is slightly sandy and micaceous, and variegated 
with red streaks ; in which circumstance it resembles some of the 
clayey beds interstratined with the limestone. When dry it cracks 
into sharp angular fragments, usually affecting a square or cubic 
form, which is the common fracture of all the beds of this formation. 
It sometimes but rarely contains small crystallizations of sulphuret 
of iron, and at Samsonovsky an efflorescence of sulphur. 
In that division of the clay district situated between the Coirova 
hills and the shore, there occurs a remarkable appearance in the 
* The three strata of this district bear the following names among the people of the 
country : 
The Limestone . . . 
. n. . Hu 
Sand 
Sandstone . . . , 
Clay 
The correct name for Limestone, as such, in Russia, is Eezeskovoy Kamen. That of this 
©ountry is called Pleta , a name answering more nearly to our word Flag , than any other, 
without reference to its composition, but rather to its schistose structure. The following 
are their distinctive names for stones : 
Flag Pleta 
Flint Kremen 
Boulder Kamen 
The latter word Kamen , which means simply stone , is applied to the primitive boulders 
par excellence , on account of their hardness. There is scarcely a peasant also but knows 
Granite by name, if not by sight. 
/ 
