132 
SECTION ON THE WEST FLANK OF THE SOUTH URAL. 
In the annexed woodcut the spectator is supposed to be looking from near the 
Ural river on the south, towards the edges of the strata which are washed by the 
river Sakmarka, and the section explains how these calcareous rocks pass con- 
formably under the Permian deposits which overlie them to the west (see Map). 
From the post-station of Verchni Qzernai, we made an excursion to the edges 
of the adjacent mountains, there known under the name of the Gourmaya Hills, 
and near the Baschkir village of Kundrofka, on the right bank of the Sakmarka, 
we found the following ascending series, clearly exhibited in beds highly inclined 
and dipping to the west. 
Girialskaya. 
22 . 
Gourmaya Hills. E. 
Conglomerate Red sands, with concretions Limestone Goniatite flags Carboniferous 
and sandstone. and copper ores. with gypsum. and grits. limestone. 
The rocks forming the mass of mountains to the right, consist of carboni- 
ferous limestone, which graduates upwards into a flagstone series. The latter is 
succeeded by bands of calcareous grit and flagstone, many of which have the same 
composition as the grits of Artinsk, and contain Goniatites, Encrini, and other 
small fossils, together with plants, &c. 
As these strata plunge directly under other calcareous rocks with gypsum, fol- 
lowed by cupriferous red sandstones and conglomerates, all of which partake of the 
elevation of the chain, and dip more or less sharply to the west, we hailed this 
section as the most important which we had observed, in showing the passage from 
lower to higher carboniferous strata, and from the latter into another system cha- 
racterized by a different group of fossils. These overlying deposits will be taken 
into consideration in the following chapter. 
General Remarks on the Fauna of the Carboniferous system of Russia . — Hie reader 
who has followed us in our preceding enumerations of the carboniferous fossils, in 
different parts of the empire of Russia, will be not less struck with their general 
resemblance to those of the same age in Western Europe, than with the marked dif- 
ferences between them and the forms in the older palaeozoic rocks of this region. 
One or two species, only, of the Devonian fauna have been detected among the nume- 
rous carboniferous types to which we have referred ; and even these may, upon a 
