CHALK OF THE COUNTRY OF THE DON COSSACKS. 
265 
the sub-Alpine eminences near Vienna (the Flysch of Keferstein and Studer) , which 
are interposed between massive and lofty mountains of limestone (Alpen or Jura 
Kalk), and the tertiary accumulations of the plains, are in fact undistinguishable 
from the “ Gr&s des Carpathes” both in structure and position, and in the fucoids 
which they both contain 1 . 
Whatever may be the exact equivalent of the “ Gr6s des Carpathes,” there can, 
however, be no doubt that to the north and north-east of that peculiar formation, 
there exists an enormous development of true cretaceous deposits, including much 
white chalk. For the account of these beds in Podolia and on the Dniester, we 
refer to the writings of Eichwald, Dubois, Blode and others, and we now at once 
transport our readers to similar rocks in those regions of Southern Russia, where 
we have personally examined them. 
Chalk of the Donetz, or Country of the Don Cossacks . — One of the finest displays 
of white chalk we saw in Russia, occurs in the southern steppes of the Don Cos- 
sacks, on the right bank of the river Donetz, which there flows for some distance 
in denudations of this rock. On the right bank of that stream, to the south of 
the Lugan iron-works, the white chalk occupies basins or undulations, which, as 
already explained (p.108), are occasionally separated from each other by protruding 
masses of highly inclined carboniferous strata. To show the very great thickness 
of the white chalk in parts of this region, we may state, that at the period of our 
1 In justice to our friend M. Zeusclmer, it should be stated, that he has been led to group the “ Gres 
des Carpathes ” with the Jurassic series, because he observed in it what he supposed to be an intercala- 
tion of rocks containing Jura fossils. See section in a work, written in the Polish language, “ Rzut 
Oka na budowe Geologiczna Tatrow przez L. Zejsznera. Warszawa, 1842. ” But we examined the 
very sections which led him to adopt this view, and cannot agree with him. We believe that the appear- 
ance of limestone with Jurassic fossils (inferior oolite, &c.), forming part of the series of the Carpathian 
sandstone at Zaflary, is simply due to an upcast, upon a line of eruption parallel to the granitic axis of the 
Tatra, by which the lower Jurassic strata have been forced up or wedged in amidst these sandy cretaceous 
formations, which, according to our view, are thrown off both to the south and north, this is indeed 
proved by the rise en masse, as above stated, of the Jurassic group of the great Tatra from beneath these 
same satidstones. An Aptychus ?, Ammonite, and Pecten have, it is true, been found in a portion of an 
outer zone of rock, very distant from the Carpathian mountains, and about one post south of Cracow, 
which is referred by M. Zeuschner to the same sandstone : but the relations of the strata are there 
much too obscure to enable us, as yet, to draw any rational conclusions from them. Until the detailed 
relations of the undulating region, extending far from the flanks of the Carpathians, are better worked 
out, and all its organic remains made known (a task which we trust M. Zeuschner will accomplish), it 
would obviously be unfair to express any opinion or decision concerning this tract, although the evidence 
is decisive at Zaflary and on the north flank of the Tatra. 
