92 
SECTION OF THE ICALMIUSS — CARBONIFEROUS SUCCESSION. 
traverse the granites and schists of Cornwall and Devon. Some of these are 
coarse syenitic greenstones, occasionally very hornbleudic, others are red, clay- 
stone porphyries. Red porphyry usurps, indeed, the whole surface in some lo- 
calities, particularly around the picturesque Greek colonies of Laaspe and Karan. 
It increases in importance and in variety of structure as you approach Karakuba 
from the south, near to which place there are many varieties of vein stones, 
jaspers, and altered strata. 
We have prefaced the account of the carboniferous deposits of the regions be- 
tween the Dnieper and the Don with this brief sketch of the crystalline and intru- 
sive rocks, which form the western and southern limits of the coal region, in 
order to give some idea of the masses, evidently crystallized at a very ancient 
period, on which the older sedimentary and carboniferous strata repose, and also 
of the agents by which the latter have been thrown into those inclined positions, 
breaks and undulations, which we are about to describe. The sections along the 
banks of the Kalmiuss clearly demonstrate, not only that the fundamental masses 
of this region are slaty granitic rocks, but also that they have been penetrated by 
intrusive matter, whilst the jaspers and altered strata prove that igneous eruptions 
have been continued along this line posterior to the carboniferous era. This last- 
mentioned phenomenon is ol theoretical importance, and, when coupled with 
the fact, that the numerous powerful flexures of the carboniferous strata, to which 
attention will speedily be called, are parallel to the great axis of crystalline and 
eruptive rocks, we can have no difficulty in believing, that such high inclination 
and contortion owe their origin to the elevatory agency of this axis. 
Ascending Section of the Kalmiuss. Red Sandstone, Shale and Conglomerate. 
Great or Lower Carboniferous Limestone '. — From an inspection of many fossils 
brought to France from this region by M. Le Play, and shown to us by him in the 
spring of 1840, as well as from others examined in the Ecole des Mines at St. Pe- 
tersburgh, we had formed an opinion before we visited the south (which opinion 
Professor Eichwald also entertained) , that the mountain or carboniferous limestone 
was greatly developed in this district, and that the coal was associated with that 
rock. So far, then, we entered this country with some previous knowledge of one 
of its main features, but from no one could we derive a settled idea of the base of 
1 Among Russian writers, Colonel Olivieri, General Kovalefski, and Captain Ivanitski have given 
sketches of different parts of these carboniferous tracts in the * Journal des Mines de Russie.’ Vol. iii 
p. 1 ; vol. iv. p. 3 ; and vol. vi. pp. 140, 156, 192. 
