EASTERN LIMITS OF THE PERMIAN SYSTEM. 
141 
braces everything which was deposited betweeen the conclusion of the carboniferous 
epoch, and the commencement of the Triassic series. 
After this preliminary explanation, we have great pleasure in expressing our 
thanks to several scientific friends who aided our labours in the examination of the 
region under review. In the mining tracts near Perm we acquired a knowledge of 
the sequence of the strata through the efforts of Colonel Volkner, the director of 
the Imperial Zavod of Yugansk, and his officers. In the district around Bielebei 
(equally rich in copper ores) we were cordially assisted by Major Wangenheim Von 
Qualen. Shortly previous to our visit, that gentleman had published 1 a geological 
sketch of the country around his residence, which too plainly indicated the doubts 
under which, in common with all his predecessors, he then continued to labour. 
He had also furnished the Museum at Moscow with a valuable collection of fossil 
shells, plants, fishes and Saurians, and he further contributed liberally to our 
scientific wants. We are bound, indeed, to say, that without his labours and 
the co-operation of our learned and kind friend Dr. Fischer, to whom the best 
of these fossils had been communicated, (and who had indeed published or pre- 
pared many of them for publication,) we could not have arrived at so clear and 
satisfactory a conclusion respecting the age of the Permian deposits. 
In describing the Permian rocks we shall commence with their eastern limits on 
the flanks of the Ural Mountains, and having pointed out their base or junction 
with the carboniferous limestone, we shall then describe parallel, transverse sec- 
tions from the Ural on the east, to the Volga on the west, concluding this chapter 
with an account of the deposits on the right bank of that river. 
Eastern limits of the Permian System . — By inspecting the Map it will at once be 
seen, that the rocks of which we have briefly spoken (and which are there coloured 
light-red, and marked by the figs. 4 and 5), are to a great extent surrounded by 
strata of the carboniferous sera, on which, in fact, they repose in the form of a 
vast trough. On the western side of this enormous basin, the country is so 
low and the subsoil so obscured by detritus, that it is difficult to ascertain the 
order of superposition in any direct section. The geologist, however, who ad- 
vances from west to east, convinces himself by independent proofs, that he has 
reached a zone of younger age than any which he has examined on the west and 
1 Bulletin de la Soc. d’Hist. Nat. de Moscou, 1840. Adopting, however, our views of classification. 
Major Wangenheim Von Qualen has published another account of the rocks of his neighbourhood, since 
we left Russia, and he now places them on the parallel of the Zechstein. 
U 
