448 
The Hon. Mr. Strangways on the 
an observer to the spots best calculated to instruct him, and which 
after all, are but few in number, much time must necessarily be 
lost in traversing the country at hazard, and much disappointment 
experienced in seeking sections, rocks, &c. where they are not to 
be found, though sometimes balanced by the good fortune of finding 
them in inconsiderable ravines or banks where their existence was 
hardly to be suspected. Not the least evil is the enormous 
accumulation of diluvium so generally spread over the whole face 
of the land. Though not so thick as in many other countries, yet 
it blocks up by far the greatest number of the banks and escarpments, 
where it would be natural to expect the strata to shew themselves 
at the surface. Add to this, bogs and impenetrable forests, the 
distance from Petersburg to any interesting ground, bad roads and 
Other inconveniencies : the absence of quarries, in a country where 
building with stone is hardly known ; of gravel pits, where the 
roads are not made roads, (except with logs,) but tracks of earth, 
left to be beaten and formed by carriages as paths are by men ; and 
the Russian language known to few, and its only alternative among 
the peasantry, the Finnish, being known to still fewer of the 
foreigners who visit this country. 
I must observe also that the sections on the banks of the rivers 
alter their appearance considerably from year to year : the severe 
frosts of the winter and the sudden melting of the snows in spring 
contributing to throw down and carry away large portions both of 
rock and soil. This accounts for the frequent landslips and fresh 
broken appearance of the banks of the most inconsiderable streams. 
Nature offers every season some new opportunities of investigation 
to the practical geologist in a northern climate. 
It may not be amiss to add to the foregoing observations, some 
account of the relations which the strata of the district I have 
