CHAPTER VI. 
CARBONIFEROUS REGION BETWEEN THE DNIEPER AND THE DON*. 
Introduction. — Extent and general Relations of the Tract. — Crystalline Rocks of 
the Southern Steppes. — Carboniferous Rocks described in an ascending order on the 
river Kalmiuss. — The same Section prolonged to the Upper Carboniferous strata 
North of Gorodofka. — Sections on the river Miuss and Krinka. — The Bituminous 
Coals of the Western and Northern Districts shown to be of the same age as the 
Anthracite on the South-west. — Anthracite of Popofskoe, and its value. — Sections on 
the Donetz. — Bituminous Coal-fields of the Northern Tracts. — Coals worked by the 
Peasantry on the tributaries of the Toretz. — Imperial Coal-ivorks of Uspensk, and 
their relations to the Chalk. — Great Imperial Works of Lissitchia-Balka . — The Coal 
subordinate to the Central Member of the Carboniferous Limestone . — Shoivn to be a 
purely Marine Formation. — Theory of the Origin of this Coal. — General relations 
and relative value of the different Coal tracts of the Southern Steppes. — Probable 
extension of valuable Coal-seams under the Cretaceous and surrounding Rocks . — 
Future Prospects, and Conclusion (see Map and PI. I. of coloured sections). 
Passing over, for the present, the undulating surface of secondary and ter- 
tiary rocks which occupy the central governments, we continue the subject of the 
carboniferous deposits, by calling attention to those tracts lying between the Dnieper 
and the Don, and watered by the Donetz, which constitute by far the richest coal 
district in the Russian empire. The portion of this country which contains rocks 
of the carboniferous fera, lies between 47^° and 49^° north latitude, and 36° and 
41i° east longitude. The major ellipse of the chief mass extending from near the 
river Voltchia s on the west-north-west, to the Kargalinsk, an eastern tributary of 
the Donetz on the east-south-east, has a length of about 230 English miles, and 
its greatest width from Karakuba on the south to the tracts around Bachmuth 
Generally known as the coal-field of the Donetz. 
- Pronounced Voltshia. 
