Fish is very plentiful In the rivers as well as in the White Sea and along the coasts of the Arctic' Sea, but It is lea abnndant in tho Baltic. The Ash which are chiefly taken in the White Sea are had dock, cod, herrings, end the omul, a kind of salmon. In the Polar Sea, especially along the coasts of Nova Zembla, the whale, the walrus, narwhal, seal, dolphin, white fish, and some other kinds are caught. The most important fisheries in Runde are those of the Volga, the Ural, and the Sea of Azof. [Asritveussi; Azov.] The fish le sent to all parts of the empire, but is not exported to any largo amount. Isinglass and caviare are sent to foreign markets.
Serpents and lizards are common ouly in the steppes. Swarms of locusts occasionally infest tho countries that border on the steppes. Among the noxious insects are scorpions, millipedes, tarantulas, and tho scorpion-spider. Bees are found wild iu most of those proviuces which have large forests, but they are also reared in other parts of the empire, especially by the Mordwi. Though the consumption of wax is very great in the churches, Russia still exports some wax. The honey collected in the districts where forests of lime-trees exist is highly valued, and fetches a good price. The mulberry-tree thrives well in the southern provinces, and the silk-worm also succeeds, but the manufacturers of Moscow and other parts of tho empire obtain their chief supply of raw silk from Persia.
Geology and successive primaeval deposits extend over European Russia in regular sequence, and in an unaltered state. Hence, though the surface presents only a monotonous and undulating surface, chiefly occupied by accumulations of mud, sand, and erratic blocks, the framework of the country wherever it can be detected exhibits a clear ascending series belonging to the Silurian period. The oldest deposits have been only partially hardened since they were accumulated at the bottom of the sea, and have been elevated in low plateaus that have undergone no change or disruption. The general order of the older strata has been singularly exempted from all intrusion of every description of plutonic or volcanic rocks. The old deposits consist of slightly coherent mud, marl, and sand, in strata deviating but little from horizontslity, and are proved to belong to the same geological period as some of the hard slaty mountains of North Wales. In the Ural chain where there aro numerous eruptive rocks (porphyry, greenstone, eienite, granite, and serpentine), the soft primeval strata so prevalent in other parts of European Russia have been converted into metamorphous rocks, crystalline schists, limestone, and quartz.
In a large portion of the country, however, west of the Ural chain, comprising the greater part of the governments of Perm, Oreuburg, Casan, Nischnei-Novgorod, Yaroslav, Kostroma, Viatka, and Vologda, constituting an area twice the size of France, the older sedimentary strata are overlaid by widely diffused masses of Permian rocks which contain fauna and flora essentially palaiozoio (the genera being the same as those of the coal period, but the species with a few exceptions different), and constitute the true termination to the long palveozoic period. These Permian deposits are of varied mineral aspect; they consist of grits, sandstones, marls, conglomerates, limestones, some times inclosing great masses of gypsum and salt, and are also much impregnated with copper, and occasionally with sulphur. They are flanked on the west, east, and north by the upper members of the carboniferous rocks, but with little or no coal Limestones iuter stratified with much gypsum prevail towards the base. In some parts of the region salt springs occur rising, it is supposed, from masses of rock-salt in older palveozoie rocks ; but in the steppes south of Orenburg, the mineral is subordinate to the true red Per mian deposits. Salt-beds range up to the foot of the older palnozoic and crystalline rocks of the South Ural Mountains to the east of Orenburg.
These Permian strata as above hinted at contain many varieties in their contents and relations. Along certain portions of the west flank of the Ural chain they occur in almost apparent conformity to the carboniferous rocks ; all the strata, whether carboniferous or Permian, have been raised up and thrown off sharply towards the west. At Sergiefsk and on the banks of the Sok in the basin of the lower Volga, magnesian limestone and marl are surmounted by gypsum, copper ore, and native sulphur, with sulphureous and asphaltic springs in the middle masses, whilst other marlstones and white limestones form the summit. Near Kazan huge masses of gypsum, rising high above the level of the Volga, are surmounted by limestone cliffs, and the latter by red, green, and white marls. In the central tracts, between the Ural Mountains and the Volga, the limestone in some tracts assumes a definite horizon, and is underlaid by coarse grits ; it is repeated also at various levels in a succession of beds interlaminated with sandstones, and yellow, white, and greenish marls, occasionally containing plants and small seams of impure coal —the whole being surmounted by red grits and conglomerates with copper-ore.