On Organic Remains from the Upper Permian Strata of Kargalinsk, in Eastern Russia

Abstract

The cupriferous sandstones composing the Kargalinsk steppe, or steppe of Kargala, to the N. of Orenburg, lie out of the ordinary track of travellers, but offer an interesting field for research. The railway now takes us as far as the town of Orenburg, whence a drive of thirty or forty miles leads into the heart of the important mining district to which I now propose to invite your attention. The doubts thrown on the Permian age of these strata in the discussion upon my former paper induce me to submit a few remarks bearing upon the question. The country is a grassy, treeless, undulating steppe, covered superficially with the well-known black earth, or tchernozem, considered by Murchison to be of marine origin. The balance of evidence, however, is in favour of it being a vegetable mould. Sluggish meandering streams intersect the steppe. The exposures of the subsoil on the banks of streams and ravines show nothing beyond red marl or sandstone devoid of fossils. The mine-borings and shafts cut down through red, yellow, and grey sandstones, and red and white marls, fossiliferous wherever the beds of copper ore exist.