3C8 
Geology of Russia and Australia. 
[None of these formations, from the Permean to the Cretaceous, 
both inclusive, appear to have been yet discovered in Australia, 
unless indeed the carboniferous beds pass upwards into Permean. 
Should it eventually be found that the latter do not represent any 
of our deposits, it will of necessity follow that the greater part of 
the area now occupied by Australia must have been above water 
during the whole period in which the above-mentioned formations 
were being deposited in the northern hemisphere; and that consi¬ 
derable portions of the area were then submerged during the 
tertiary and diluvian epochs, and have since risen (as attested by 
raised beaches and other phenomena,) to the present level above 
the sea.] 
The tertiary formations occupy a most extensive area in Russia. 
The great eocene and miocene groups are divided by the granitic 
axis which extends from Volhynia to Douetz, the former deposits 
occurring to the north. The southern group is connected with 
Transylvania and Austria. 
A much greater development of tertiary beds occurs in the 
general area between the Aral and Caspian seas, hence called 
“ Aralo- Caspian” deposits. It appears that the whole of this 
territory, extending to the western shores of the North Sea, was 
formerly occupied by an enormous inland basin, having no com¬ 
munication with the Mediterranean or the ocean. The Aral and 
Caspian seas are the relics of this once vast inland mass of waters. 
But whither have they receded, to leave but the present compara¬ 
tively small portions of them ? And how is it, that the rocks then 
deposited are now from 200 to 300 feet above the level of the 
existing waters. The only explanation is, that this part of Russia 
was subjected to vertical movements of elevation, but not to much 
horizontal derangement, the consequence of which was the sub¬ 
mergence of great part of Russia during the tertiary and diluvian 
epochs. 
The Mediterranean is now connected with the Black Sea, and 
this connection has given an oceanic character to the fauna of the 
latter, very different from that of the Aralo-Caspian territory. 
The shores of the Black Sea are of the pliocene age, but there is 
no species of the fossil shells of that formation identical with 
