246 
SECTIONS ON THE LOWER VOLGA. 
bank of the Volga at Goroditche west-north-west of Simbirsk, because it shows the 
relative positions of several of the beds to which allusion has just been made. 
SECTION AT GORODITCHE ON THE VOLGA. 
38. 
Cover of “ Tchomozem ” or Black Earth . 
g. Beds of clay and sand with concretions of argillaceous blue limestone. . 
(The above beds are seen in the adjacent slopes.) 
/. Inoccramus grit or sandstone-top of the cliff 
e, Yellow sand with Belemnites 
Feet. 
d. Alternations of black shale with grey marl 
c. Finely laminated bituminous schists with fragments of Jet, and containing Ammonites \ 
Panderi and Orbicula mcestis (Eichw.) 1 
b. Strata obscured by fall of the cliff 
I Dark grey shale or clay and marl, occasionally hard, with numerous ) . 
[ ferruginous and pyritous concretions or cement stones / * 
Summer level of the Volga 
To the north-east of Sysran, or in the hills above the Ussa and Volga rivers, the 
lower Jurassic shale is seen in mouldering cliffs and sloping hills loaded with cha- 
racteristic Ammonites and Belemnites, and reposing, as at Moscow, upon the car- 
boniferous limestone *. To the south of Sysran the same black shale, with greenish 
and ferruginous sandstone and concretions, extends into the promontory of Kash- 
poor and occupies the base of nearly all the sections down to Sar&tof. At Feodorof- 
skaya and Khvalinsk these beds are capped by cretaceous rocks and white chalk. 
After several denudations and obscurations, the Jurassic rocks appear in great 
force in the cliffs of the Volga at Saratof, and to the north of that city exhibit a 
greater development of the formation than we have seen at any one place in Russia, 
the vertical thickness not being less than 300 to 400 feet. The ascending section 
from the Volga under the hill of the suburb called Sakalosfkie, offers — 
1 . Towards the river edge, a vast succession of rolling subsidences of clay, sand and grit, the detritus of the 
cliff above, which rise in a rude talus, the concretions of cement stone with septarian divisions exposing here and 
there very beautiful Ammonites and other fossils, often highly iridescent. The Ammonites contains of the Oxford 
clay is one of the species we were enabled to identify upon the spot. 2. Dark pyritous shale with many concre- 
tions of ferriferous and argillaceous limestone of light indigo colour, some as large as bee-hives, easily exfoliating 
and breaking to pieces under atmospheric influence (iridescent Ammonites abundant). 3. Sands of yellowish 
colours and of considerable thickness. 4. Shale. 5. Yellow sandstone with bands of cherty character. 0. Dark 
shale, with concretions passing into whitish stone bands. 7. Yellow, ferruginous sand and ironstone bands. 
8. Dark shale. 9. Yellow and whitish sands. 
1 The vertebra of a Saurian has also been found here, and was described by Professor Eichwald. Uber 
Icthyos. und Cerat. Russl. 1841. The Orbicula mcestis above mentioned, is described by the same author. 
Urwelt Russland, 1840. Heft 1. pi. 4. 
