Geology of Russia and Australia. 
367 
beds of freestone, and black argillaceous beds containing a little 
coal, here and there surmounted by light or occasionally magne¬ 
sian, limestones. In the south, it has been much dislocated, and 
contains beds of good workable coal, alternating with grey compact 
limestone, charged with marine fossils. 
[Geologists cannot fail to recognise in this description a great 
resemblance to the character and conditions of the carboniferous 
system of New South Wales. The upper series seems to find a 
parallel in the Sydney sandstones and Cowpasture shales and 
calcareous grits, and the lower bears resemblance to the coal beds 
of the Hunter and Illawarra, which alternate with fossiliferous 
beds, passing into limestone, as at Wollongong, Harpur's Hill, &c.] 
Above the carboniferous system is laid the great series of deposits 
called the Permean system, which occupies in the government of 
Perm and the neighbouring districts an area larger than France. 
They abut on the flanks of the Ural, but do not penetrate the 
interior of that chain; the first upheaval of which must have 
occurred before their deposition, and at the end of the carboni¬ 
ferous epoch. Conglomerates with fossilised wood, and dissemi¬ 
nated copper are abundant. Limestone and gypsum occur in beds 
at the base; freestone conglomerates at the upper part. The 
equivalent of these beds in other parts of Europe are the Rothetodte 
liegende, Kupferschiefer, Zeclistein, and the Gres de Vosges; 
but as the type is not the same, this series in Russia is designated 
the Permean system. 
Thetria&sic formation is not much developed in Russia; but 
the hunter sandstein seems to occur in Orenburg and Vologda. 
The Jurassic formation occupies several basins of considerable 
extent; but the lias and Oxford oolites are absent. 
The Cretaceous formation is found only on the south of the 
Devonian axis, which traverses the centre of Russia. It occurs 
in great force south of Simbirsk, but not to the north of that 
government; extending into Crimea. In this immense territory 
the beds of white limestone, with silex, &c., cause it to be com¬ 
pared with the cretaceous beds of the North of Europe, but 
exhibit a dissimilarity from the type assumed in Southern Europe, 
Africa, and A.sia, called the Mediterranean type. 
