182 JOURNEY TO TSHORGUNA, BALAKLAVA, AND ALONG

the contiguous hills, we could diftinc'Uy perceive a fteep bank ofgrey rock, fituated on an elevated part of the Alp, and whichis known by the name of Kum-kaya, or the Eagle's-rock.

Beyond the rivulet, there is a tract of the fea-fhore, thatexhibits beds of fchiftus partly in a ftrait, and partly in anundulating line. We now again retired from the coaft, andcroffed a hollow though at prefent dry glen called Kara-Oufehen; being deeply excavated in the brown fchiftus,which interfe£ts the horizontal bed of the foffil refembling trap.Here the mountains, that form a projecting angle toward theSouth-eaft, in front of the ßabugan Yaila, approach thefhore with fmall but remarkably broken hills: thus we wereunder the neceffity of paffing a very difficult road, leadingover mount Koftaal, which extends, with its ftony fragments,in an abrupt manner, to the brink of the fea, and confifts of avery peculiar light-grey foffil cleft into a great variety of cunei-form and trapezoidal figures, while it is depofited in bulkylayers. This mineral, when recently broken, contains, likethe wacca above defcribed, an evident admixture of fhirl: it isof a fcaly, compact texture, interfperfed with dark or brownpoints, and a large portion of quartz; fo that it ftrikes firewith fteel, and is of confiderable weight. Its fragments be-come efflorefcent on expofure, and frequently exhibit a whitifhor rufty yellow cruft, beneath which a dark blue ftreak isperceptible. A fimilar fpecies of ftone, divided into fmallpieces, in fize refembling fhip-bifcuits, is found on the moun-tains of Ural, in the upper diftrict of the river Ural or Yaik,near Vereehoyaitzk, where it is called by the natives Suck-harnoi-kamen, or Stone-bifcuit.

After