DESCRIPTION OF THE MAPS IN VOL. I. 
657 
koff, one of whom, M. James Khanikoff, is about to issue a Russian map of the South 
Uial, the other, M. N. Khanikoff, having obligingly sent us his compilation from various 
new surveys and his own, extending to the viral and the Caspian 1 . 
Even in a purely geographical view, we are therefore enabled to lay before the European public 
a map charged with many outlines and positions unknown to geographers, especially to 
those of England. The most original portion, however, in which one of ns (Count Key- 
serling with his associate Lieut. Krusenstern) has worked out, is the Timan Range and the 
basin of the Petchora, no correct features of which region were ever before published. 
In an effort so arduous as the construction of a geological map of Russia in Europe and the 
Ural Mountains, and a tabular classification of all the sedimentary deposits, we bespeak the 
indulgence of critical geologists, and beg them not to look for errors of demarcation and 
detail, but fairly to regard the general intention and scope of the work. At the same 
time, we may be allowed to say, that we have laboured hard to render our Map as correct 
as possible up to the last moment, and have spared no expense in repeatedly altering the 
copper-plate as fresh knowledge was acquired. This process of improvement might doubt- 
less have gone on for many years, but the period has arrived when we must launch our 
work . And here Me must state, that although the Imperial Government possesses most 
elaborate and beautifully executed surveys of nearly all the frontier countries 2 , no good 
physical maps have yet been published concerning the mass of Central Russia, nor are 
even the materials for their construction yet gathered together. 
That vast undulating region consists of various round-backed and plateau-shaped masses of 
land, for the most part of small elevations from 200 to 600 feet above the sea, and rising 
at very rare intervals to altitudes exceeding 1000. To attempt the delineation of such 
monotonous hills without very accurate data, would merely have been to convey imperfect 
ideas ; and we have, therefore, restricted ourselves to the representation of the chief moun- 
tain ranges by which Russia and Europe is subtended. In the interior we have alone 
lightly defined the chief watershed of the Valdai Hills, and a small though perceptible 
parallel ridge in Livonia, for which we are indebted to our friend M. Struve. We have 
also inserted the remarkable feature of the high ground on the right bank of the Volga 
below Aijny Novogorod as contrasted with the low country on its left bank 3 . When the 
great trigonometrical survey of that eminent astronomer and his associate General Ten- 
ner, to which we have alluded, shall be accomplished, then indeed the western frontier of 
Russia in Europe will be accurately laid down, and then may geologists proceed to elimi- 
nate details which are quite beside the objects of our present labours. 
1 We have already adverted to the survey of Captain Romanoff between the South Ural and the Aral 
Sea, p. 341. 
2 See Mr. Murchison’s account of these in his Anniversary Address read to the Royal Geographical 
Society, May 1845. (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. xv.) 
See explanation of this phtenomenon, Appendix N. p. 650. 
