CRETACEOUS SYSTEM OF POLAND. 
263 
as species are in designating the limits of sub-groups within given distances, the 
distribution of the fossils of the Cretaceous system of France and Germany shows, 
that forms which some geologists might consider as characterizing one division 
only of a system, there pervade all its members. We have alluded to the divisions 
of the Cretaceous system of the east of Germany, in order to lead our readers to 
admit, that as in a country not midway between the shores ol Britain and some 
of the tracts to which w T e are about to allude, there are already such striking de- 
viations from the local types with which they are familiar, so might we, when 
transported to the eastern extremities of Europe, expect to find still less agreement 
in character between more widely-separated cretaceous deposits. Nevertheless all 
observers will not fail to be struck with the fact, that however the detailed litholo- 
gical and zoological succession of the subformations vary, the pure white chalk re- 
appears in Russia with exactly the same aspect and composition as in their own 
countries, associated with certain greensands ; whilst the cretaceous seiies, as a 
whole, is eminently marked by the same group of organic remains. 
If our observations had been adequate, we should have conducted our readers, 
step by step, from the Silesian and Saxon deposits to which we have briefly alluded, 
through Poland intoVolhynia and Podolia, those western governments of Russia in 
which cretaceous rocks occur. Not having, however, personally examined a great 
portion of that area, we must dismiss this subject in a few paragraphs, relating to 
tracts with which we have so slight an acquaintance, and then proceed to describe 
those parts of Russia in which we made more accurate observations 1 . 
Covering portions of the south of Poland, the cretaceous rocks extend in great 
force into Yolhynia, and are extensively exposed on the banks of the Vistula and 
its tributaries. Thence they range by Lublin into Podolia, where they surmount 
the Palaeozoic rocks (Devonian ? and Silurian) on the banks of the Dniester (en- 
virons of Kamenetz-Podolsk, and Moghilev). 
In that tract of Poland which lies to the south of Kielce, and between that town 
and Cracow, the cretaceous rocks have a very uniform aspect, and consist of thin- 
i In the Royal collections at Warsaw we noticed the small Exogyra calceola m a greensand from 
Denischin near Marionufka on the Dniester; GrypUa anmlata and Nautili from Kasbisch on the Vis- 
tula • large Inocerami with Scaphites and Echini in flints, from gray chalk m a tract extending from Khar- 
kuf by Novi-miasto to Kortchin, where those fossils are associated with sulphur and gypsum ; Belemnites 
from Udritza near Yamstock ; Alcyonia in large branches from Lublin and the country extending to 
Zamosch and Kasmisch. At the latter place the zoophyte. Choanites of Mantell, occurs, and will be 
pointed out as re-appearing at Khwalynsk on the Volga, and at Kursk in the heart of Russia. 
2 M 2 
