ALONG THE PENINSULA OF KERTSH, &c.

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(in which dire&ion the fummit of the hill more fuddenly de-clines, and is in a manner furrowed) is overflowed by a moreliquid mud, which feems, at different intervals, to have exca-vated a Channel refembling that of a rivulet, and being abouttwelve paces broad: at the bottom, however, it is loft in thethick layer of more folid mud, where the drier matter is col-lected into feveral heaps. Beneath the mire, in this neighbour-hood, I found not only various fpecimens of very brilliantpyrites, in cubic cryftals, partly loofe and partly attached tothe marl, in a perfect ftate, but likewife met with the famefoflil inferted in the crevices of the marl-ftone; a fufficientproof, that fuch pyrites had been expelled from the fuperiorftratum, which had undergone no changes by fire. The muditfelf, the largeft ftream of which is from fixty to one hundredfathoms broad, was then but fuperficially covered with a drycruft: being cracked, it was unfafe to walk over it; and, onremoving a piece from the top, the fubjacent part was foft andadhefive like moiftened clay. On account of its rugged anduneven furface, it was as difficult to pafs over the mire, as if ithad been congealed by the froft.

The whole of this prodigious mafs is perfe&ly uniform, re-fembling a blueifh-grey fat clay, interfperfed with fine particlesof mica. When moift, it may be kneaded; but, in a dryftate, it feparates, like the clayey mud of roads, into irregulärpieces, or crumbles into fragments, leaving crevices of ten,two, or three inches broad ; though it retains fome folidity,when in lumps. 1 could not difcover any vitriolic, and in afew places only a trifling faline efHorefcence on the furface ofthe mud: by the teil of acids, it produced a flight efFervefcence.

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