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GENERAL RELATIONS OF THE SOUTHERN COAL TRACTS. 
and clay. The following succession of beds is developed in ascending order, dip- 
ping to the north-west at angles of which 45° may be taken as the average : 
1. Highly bituminous, black, subcrystalline limestone, in which no fossils were observed (this rock has an 
altered aspect). 
2. Ferruginous shale with some ironstone, &c. 
3. Thick-bedded, mottled, subconcretionary compact limestone, in parts of light grey, in others of dark 
bluish grey colours, of scaly conchoidal fracture, passing here and there into a ferruginous “ lumachelli.” 
In this limestone Lieut. Vasilief, of the Mining Corps, who was stationed here 
and obligingly explained the section to us, had collected many fossils, some of 
which are identical with species which abound in the southern tracts. 
4. Sandstone and shale, with impure iron ores. 
5. Coal, subordinate to beds of bluish shale or argillaceous schist, formerly worked by a shallow shaft eight 
toises deep, but now abandoned on account of the influx of water. This coal is about two feet thick 
and approaches in quality to Cannel coal. 
6. Great developement of ferruginous sandstone, occasionally pebbly, with traces of carbonaceous matter. 
7. Upper coal-beds, consisting of three seams of small thickness, alternating with shale and worked by 
shafts, six and ten toises deep, but now almost abandoned. 
8. Ferruginous sandstone and shale. 
These coal-seams of Petrofskaya having been worked in the most simple manner 
only, and at little or no expense, it is difficult to say to what account they may 
eventually be turned, for the small seams alluded to, have been extracted for the 
use of the military village only, and the whole force employed, with the exception 
of the engineer, consisted of a few soldiers, placed under his orders at intervals by 
way of punishment. 
As coal has been discovered at Gussadofka four versts north, and at Dimitrofka 
fifteen versts to the south of Petrofskaya, it would appear (whatever may be the na- 
ture of the overlying deposits) that coal-hearing strata constitute the fundamental 
rocks of this region. 
With the improved culture, however, introduced by the military colonies, and 
the rapid rise into commercial and manufacturing importance of the city of Khar- 
kof, nearly 100 versts to the north of these coal-beds, it is highly probable that 
the tract around Petrofskaya may eventually be brought into notice. It would, 
indeed, be highly desirable that the Imperial Government should direct researches 
to be made between the known outcrops of coal and the city of Kharkof, as the 
carbonaceous masses may extend northwards and be found at moderate depths be- 
neath the cretaceous rocks of that government. It is right, however, to bear in 
mind, that the coal strata of Petrofskaya are in a highly dislocated condition, with 
