442 
STEPPES EXTENDING TO TROITSK. 
schists, having in parts a “schaalstein” aspect, strikes nearly north and south, the 
beds of which are either vertical or plunge 75° and 80° to the east. These schists 
are, in parts, almost a hornstone, occasionally contain small, flattened quartzose 
concretions, and are again flanked by an intrusive rock which we noted on the spot 
as being hornblendic granite or syenite'. 
At Ossipovskaya, where we joined the high road from Verch-Uralsk to Troitsk, 
the banks of the Ui are composed of a greenstone, which cuts irregularly through 
schistose grauwacke, having nearly a north and south strike. Nearly destitute of 
all vegetation, except the Artemisia or wormwood (the roots and leaves of which 
during the hot summer of 1841 were covered with locusts), the tract extending to 
Troitsk offers very little interest either to the geologist or botanist, the bare and 
wild steppes on the opposite bank of the Ui being alone varied by a few Kirghis 
huts. Masses of limestone do, however, occur to the west and east of Troitsk, in 
which we sought in vain for traces of organic remains, though in the limestone near 
the town, Colonel Helmersen collected fossils which are considered to be of pa- 
laeozoic age. By reference to the eastern end of the long transverse section, PI. IV., 
the reader may at once comprehend the general nature of all this thinly-peopled, 
sterile and parched-up region, from which we gladly escaped to revisit the green 
and gay Ural 2 . 
1 In reference to what appears in the text in this and the following page, as well as previously (p.395), 
concerning granite and syenite, we may observe, that the late Dr. MacCulloch was the first English 
author who drew a geological distinction between granitic and syenitic rocks. Granite (including, how- 
ever, a species of syenite) was, he contended, associated with the most ancient crystalline rocks, whilst 
syenite was subsequent to and often incumbent on what he termed secondary rocks (Geol. Trans. Old 
Ser. vol. iii. p. 337). More recent observations have, however, shown, that true granite has in various 
countries cut through palaeozoic and even secondary or mesozoic deposits, and thus no geological distinc- 
tion, marking epochs of eruption, can be established between that rock and syenite. They are, in truth, 
mineral varieties of intrusive masses which geologists must recognise as intimately connected in their 
operations. 
4 Standing out as the advanced post of Russia in this parallel, Troitsk, though having a population of 
5000 only, is a town of considerable importance, through the barter and commerce which is there carried 
on between Russia and the Asiatic countries of the Kirghis, Bokhara, &c. 'Hie large Menovoi-dwor, 
or Exchange, stands on the southern or Kirghis side of the river Ui and opposite the town. Four to five 
hundred Bokharians, a few Persians, and not less than 20,000 Kirghis are said to frequent it annually 
with their various goods. The Bokharians exchange their strong silk-cotton goods for copper, iron, hard- 
ware and money, whilst the Kirghis buy cotton, cloth, &c. Russian goods to the value of three millions 
of rubles are here sold to people who traverse deserts, and it was noted as a remarkable feature in their 
commerce, that this was the first year (1841) in which no caravan had been attacked or pillaged in its 
passage through the steppes. 
