DRIFT AND ERRATICS ON THE SHORES OF THE WHITE SEA. 
517 
upon the denuded carboniferous limestone or on its spoil, with very little other superficial covering. Though a few 
northern blocks appear near the station of Braneva, the ordinary character of the superficial detritus of a consider- 
able part of the country between Cargopol and the Dwina, is of a very tranquilly-formed character. Thus on the 
Onega river and its feeder, tlieTcliutchetza, the banks are composed of fine sandy loam of a considerable thickness, 
not unlike the loss of the Danube, and this becoming more sandy, continues to Archaugelskoi ; near to which, indeed, 
the carboniferous limestone is solely covered by a few inches of fine dark mould. Again, sands, occasionally 
loamy, and rarely passing into a state of " loss,” for the most part nothing but sea-sands, encumber the surface of 
the carboniferous limestone, which only peeps out, at intervals ; and through several stages we could only discover a 
solitary northern block in the course of many miles, a few of them being visible at the little post-house of Ivodysez. 
Between that place and Siiskaya on the Dwina, are picturesque small lakes, surrounded by rapidly undulating 
sandy hills, occasionally somewhat argillaceous and finely laminated, and then passing into loss ; but fur and wide 
must the traveller roam to find an erratic block. 
This is perhaps the most extensive boulderless tract which we traversed in 
Northern Russia. On approaching, however, the higher grounds which form the 
left of the Dwina, the soil becomes argillaceous, and granitic northern blocks again 
occur upon the surface'. 
Near the estuary of the Dwina, or for a certain distance to the south of Archangel, the right bank of the river, 
which is high and opposite to the plains and meadows of Kholmogor or Kolmogorri, is composed of irregular accu- 
mulations of reddish argillaceous sand and marl, apparently void of stratification ; nothing more than regenerated 
piles of the subjacent Old Red Sandstone, which formation then succeeds to the carboniferous, and therefore makes 
up the mass of the drift. The surface of this tract, rarely sandy, and for the most part argillaceous and boggy, 
very seldom exhibits anything like a large granitic boulder. 
Traversing the Dwina to its west bank, and coasting the low promontories which 
fringe the White Sea, we there also travelled three stations in dunes of sand and 
stunted woods, before we met with a northern travelled rock. No sooner, how- 
ever, did we arrive in the same parallel of longitude as the isles of rocky gneiss 
and granite in the bay, than we began to find a few erratics derived from them 2 . 
1 In the next chapter we shall show how some of these boulders have been moved in modern times. 
5 The monastery of St. Nicholas stands on one of these isles. The sandy shores of the White Sea, 
along which we were then forcing our way (accompanied by our kind friend Mr. Whitehead, Her Bri 
tannic Majesty’s Consul at Archangel), were covered at intervals witli numerous plants, which formed a 
rich foreground to the magnificent marine prospect of the glassy sea with its islets and white monasteries. 
The plants we observed were chiefly those of the flora of North Britain, and, exclusive of some remark- 
able roses, we collected Linnam borealis, Pyrula uniflora, Rubus Chanuemorus, Rubus (species unknown), 
Impatiens Noli-me-tangere, Cornus Suecica, Trientalis Europaa, Thymus Serpyllmn, Circtea Alpina, Vac- 
cinium Oxy coccus, &c. We were also much struck with the large size and good shape of the cows in these 
boreal tracts. They are, in fact, quite as large and fine-coated as those of the English Suffolk breed, 
and not unlike them. This feature of civilization is due to that remarkable sovereign Petei the Great, 
who imported Dutch cattle, suitable to the rieli and deep pastures on the left bank of the Dvina, near 
the ancient town of Kholmogor, from whence the breed has spread over a considerable tract. Khol- 
mogor was the chief town of these parts (long before the foundation of Archangel), when the intrepid 
3 x 
