SECTION ON THE BANKS OF THE TCHUSSOVAYA. 
125 
osities of the older rocks on which it rests. The outer zone is, in fact, the indica- 
tion at the surface, of a line of upheaval parallel to the Ural chain, and as we 
shall revert to this subject hereafter, it is sufficient now to state, that as far as our 
own observations went, this band, running for the most part in a tract of little 
elevation, and much obscured by local detritus, seldom exhibits its relations to 
the superior deposits. We therefore commence our account of the carboniferous 
rocks of this region by describing the limestone on the west flank of the North 
Ural, where it forms one band only, as exposed on the banks of the Tchussovaya, 
a tributary of the Kama, and where it dips under deposits differing considerably 
from any which we have described in other parts of Russia. 
Section of the Tchussovaya.— Carboniferous Limestone, Millstone Grit, Coal, Cal- 
ciferous Grit, Flags, and Conglomerate (3 and 3' of Map). — The lowest member of 
the system, resting upon and passing conformably downwards into the Devonian 
rocks, is exhibited most distinctly, in several grand flexures on the banks of the 
Tchussovaya, to the east of its tributary the Coiva. It is there a light grey, 
crystalline, compact limestone of very great thickness, much resembling the great 
Scar limestone of the north of England, or the equivalents of that rock in the 
Bristol and South Welsh coal-fields, and is charged with large Producti and many 
characteristic fossils. 
A few versts to the west of Kinofsk 1 , the lowest beds of this limestone, or those 
in contact with the Devonian rocks on which that Zavod is situated, consist of 
great masses of amorphous structure, in some places foi’ming troughs, in others 
rising up into precipitous peaks, the beds in which are occasionally vertical. These 
limestones are distinguished by containing many concretions of flint and chert, 
and at one spot, called Moultic, we collected the Productus giganteus, P. comoides, 
and other fossils characteristic of the lower strata. 
No description of the geologist, still less a mere sectional drawing, can convey 
an adequate idea of the contortions and pictorial beauty of these wild gorges. The 
flexures on the Meuse may, in some respects, be compared with them, but the 
channel of the Tchussovaya being narrower, the rocks more rugged and diversified 
with foliage, and the defiles highly intricate, the Russian scene appeared to us to 
be more striking than that in Belgium 2 . 
1 The property of Count G. A. Strogonoff. 
- We very much regret that since our return to England, certain sketches of these gorges have been 
lost, or we should certainly have given lithographic illustrations of this grand scene of contortion, in 
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