Ukraine, the land and its people

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UKRAINE

THE LAND AND ITS PEOPLE

AN INTRODUCTION TO ITS GEOGRAPHY

BY
STEPHEN RUDNITSKY, Ph. D.
PRIVATDOZENT OF GEOGRAPHY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LEMBERG

NEW YORK CITY
1918

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RAND MCNALLY & CO.
NEW YORK [[III]]

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Publisher’s Preface

The first appearance of this book, which is from the pen of Stephen Rudnitsky, the famous geographer of the University of Lemberg, was in the Russian Ukraine. The book was printed in Ukrainian, at Kieff, and the date under the publisher’s imprint was 1910. The first translation into a foreign language was into German. This translation appeared at Vienna in 1915, with many improvements and additions.

The English translation which appears in this volume is an authorized translation of the German edition above-mentioned.

The reader is respectfully requested to note that the few unpleasant references to Russia are of course meant to apply to the Russia of the Czars, as the book was written during the Czarist régime.

Ukrainian Alliance of America

New York City
1918 [[V]]

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CONTENTS

PAGE

Book I. [Physical Geography]

Book II. [Anthropogeography]

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Book I.

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

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Ukraine as a Geographic Unit

There are few lands upon the whole globe so imperfectly known to geographic science as the one which we shall try to describe in this little work. The geographic concept of the Ukraine does not exist in the geography of today. Even the name has been almost forgotten in Europe in the course of the last century and a half. Only occasionally on some maps of Eastern Europe the name “Ukraine” shows timidly along the middle of the Dnieper. And yet it is an old name of the country, originating in the 11th Century, generally known thruout Europe from the 16th to the end of the 18th century, and then, after the abrogation of the autonomy of the second Ukrainian state, gradually fallen into oblivion. The Russian Government has determined to erase the old name of the land and the nation from the map of Europe. Little Russia, West Russia, South Russia, New Russia, were officially introduced in place of the old name Ukraine, the Austrian part of the Ukraine receiving the name of East Galicia. The people were named Little Russians, South Russians, Ruthenians, and all remembrance of the old name seemed to have been blotted out. But, in the speech of the people and in the magnificent unwritten popular literature of the nation, the name of the land could not be destroyed, and, with the unexpected rise of Ukrainian literature, culture, and a feeling of national political independence in the 19th Century, the name Ukraine came into its own again. Today there is not an intelligent patriotic Ukrainian who would use another name for his country [[4]]and nation than Ukraine and Ukrainian, and, slowly, these designations are penetrating foreign lands as well.

The Ukraine is the land in which the Ukrainian nation dwells—a great solid national territory embracing all the southern part of Russia in Europe, besides East Galicia, Northwest Bukowina and Northeast Hungary.

This district is a definite geographic unit. A discussion of its exact boundaries shall be reserved for the anthropogeographical part of this book.

A division of Europe into natural regions almost invariably stops at Eastern Europe. While all the other portions of our globe have long been the object of the most detailed classification, Eastern Europe remains, as before, an undivided whole. To be sure, there have been many attempts at classification, but they are all based upon a non-geographical point of view. Only the Baltic provinces and Poland are, in their present political extent, regarded as possible geographic units.

These deficiencies in the geographic material relating to Eastern Europe are due, above all, to our imperfect knowledge of this great region. Russian science is devoting far more intensive study to the Asiatic borderlands of the immense empire than to the European home country. For this reason, our literary aids in this direction are few and unreliable. The latter criticism applies even to the twenty-volume Geography of Russia by Semyonoff and the Geography of Krassnoff. Apart from the consideration that it is relatively out of date, the fifth volume of Reclus’ “Géographie universelle” still offers the best insight into this unique region of Eastern Europe.

If we glance at the map of Eastern Europe, we perceive at once that the great uniformity of this immense region makes it quite impossible to apply to Eastern Europe as a criterion the division of Western or Central Europe. It is not seas and mountains that separate the natural [[5]]regions and anthropogeographical units of Eastern Europe, but imperceptible morphological transitions, hydrographic and climatic boundaries, petrologic and floral conditions.

The Ukraine is an Eastern European country. Its situation, its decidedly continental character, its geologic history, tectonic construction and morphologic conditions, its climate, plant and animal life, its anthropogeography—all are characteristic of Eastern Europe. But within Eastern Europe the Ukraine occupies a unique position, which fully warrants our conceiving of this great land as a geographic unit standing on an equal basis with the other natural units, as Great Russia, North Russia, the Ural, White Russia, the Baltic Provinces. But it also forms a characteristic transition country from Eastern to Central and Southern Europe on the one side, and to Western Asia on the other.

The location of the Ukraine causes us necessarily to consider it as the easternmost of the Mediterranean countries of Europe. The Ukraine differs from these other Mediterranean countries in that it is not hemmed in on the north by mountains. The back-country of the Black Sea, which the Ukraine really is, therefore merges gradually into the lands lying further to the north—Great Russia and White Russia. Of all the regions of Eastern Europe, the Ukraine alone has access to the Mediterranean.

The geological history of the Ukraine is entirely different from that of the rest of Europe. The pre-Cambrian core of gneiss-granite of the Ukraine, unlike other parts of Eastern Europe, was not flooded by the sea either in the Cambrian period or the lower Silurian, while in the upper Silurian the sea covered only a slight part of Western Podolia and Northern Bessarabia. The Devonian sea crossed the boundaries of the Ukraine only in the farthest east (Donetz Plateau) and west (Western Podolia). The [[6]]carbon deposits and Permian formations, so widely distributed in Eastern Europe, are found in the Ukraine only on the Donetz; triassic rock hardly at all. The Jurassic Sea confined its action almost wholly to the plicated borderlands of the Ukraine, altho it actually flooded great stretches of Eastern Europe. Only the extension of the chalk seas thru Eastern Europe affected Ukrainian territory, especially the northern and western borderlands. The old tertiary sea, on the other hand, confined itself for the most part to the Ukraine, with the result that a goodly section of the northeastern boundary of the old tertiary deposits coincides exactly with the anthropogeographical boundaries of the Ukraine. The inland seas of the lower green-sand formation of Eastern Europe, too, are confined almost entirely to Ukrainian territory.

The geologic history of the Ukraine in the diluvian period was also decidedly different from that of the other districts of Eastern Europe. The Northern European inland ice covered the northwestern borderlands of the Ukraine only in the main ice period, for the boundary set for the glaciation of the north, on the basis of the investigations of Russian scholars, applies in great measure only to the limits of the distribution of northern glacial boulders, which were carried to their present site not by ice but by flowing water. The two indentations of the glaciation-boundary in the Don and Dnieper district merely mark the sphere of action of two glacial river systems.

The absence of a one-time inland-ice-cap differentiates the Ukrainian district very markedly from the other parts of Eastern Europe. As we perceive, even from this short description, the Ukraine has had an entirely different geologic history from the rest of Eastern Europe.

More plainly still, the independence of the Ukraine as a natural unit is revealed in its contour-line and surface-relief. [[7]]The Ukraine is the only portion of the Eastern European plain which has access to the mountainous region, for it rests upon the Carpathians, the Yaila Mountains and the Caucasus. Important individual districts of the Ukraine lie in these mountains and lessen the Eastern European uniformity of the country. The formation of the Yaila and the Caucasus began at the end of the Jurassic period—its completion and the building up of the Carpathians occur in the late tertiary period.

The plains and plateau of the Ukraine, while at first glance quite similar to those of Central Russia, are in reality very different from these as to structure and surface-relief. The nucleus of the Ukrainian plateau group, which is surrounded by the two plain districts of the Ukraine, consists of the so-called Azof Horst (so named by E. Suess), which stretches from the banks of the Sea of Azof in a northwesterly direction as far as Volhynia and Austrian Podolia. This primeval rock surface, composed of granite gneiss, is bounded by quarries and edged with declivities, which are hidden by more recent sediment deposits. Since this extended Horst stretches thru practically the whole length of the Ukraine, we shall call it “the Ukrainian Horst.”

This Ukrainian Horst is of great importance for the entire process of folding, all over the earth. To the west of this Horst is the immense fold-system of the Altai, folded far into North America toward the north and northeast, in direct opposition to the main parts of the enormous system which lie to the east of it. In the east of the Horst we see the straight line of the mountain system of the Caucasus; in the west the winding guide-lines of Central Europe.

The region of the Ukrainian Horst has influenced not only the formation of the plicated country. In connection with it we find, arranged on a grand scale, but not very [[8]]intensive, disintegrating lines, which traverse the entire Ukrainian country from N. W. to S. E. These tectonic disturbances have led to strong folding and dislocation of the more recent sedimentary layers which lie close to the Horst. This folding district can be observed only in the trunk range on the Donetz and in a few isolated places to the northwest; beyond this it is buried under the huge cover of the tertiary layers. The folding process took place in the Donetz Mountains, continuing with long interruptions from the end of the paleozoic era to the beginning of the tertiary period. As pre-tertiary disturbances of this kind we consider the disturbance of Isatchky, Trekhtimiriv, etc., as well as some dividing lines at the northwestern extremity of the Ukrainian Horst.

There is no doubt that the Ukrainian Horst was also the origin of more recent tectonic disturbances—tertiary and post-tertiary. The two main lines of Karpinsky (the northern—Volga, bend of the Don, source of the Donetz, delta of the Desna, South Polissye, Warsaw; the southern—delta of the Don, end of the Porohy of the Dnieper, source of the Boh, Western Podolia) for the most part go back to these more recent post-cretaceous disturbances. Besides, we are already able, despite our insufficient morphological data on the Ukraine, to establish the fact that the entire Ukrainian plateau-group is the scene of a significant post-glacial elevation. The strikingly parallel courses of the main streams, the Dniester, the Boh, the Dnieper as far as Katerinoslav, the Donetz and the Don, together with the precipices frequently accompanying them, lead us to infer the existence of tectonic influences. That the precipices of Podolia are very recent we may now confidently maintain, and that the precipitous bank of the Dnieper is quite as recent is shown by the familiar dislocation near Kaniv, where the tertiary is affected. Seismic movements of the most recent past [[9]]and morphological observations show us that the tectonic disturbances of the Ukraine are continuing into our own day.

From this tectonic characterization of the Ukraine we perceive that this country occupies an independent position in relation to the rest of Eastern Europe. The much more intensive tectonic disturbances of the Ukrainian region have produced a greater variety of plateau and plain country here than in White, Great or North Russia. The Ukrainian plateaus attain the contour-lines of 400 and even 500 meters and reveal precipices of tectonic origin, which for a long time were considered proof of Baer’s law and have recently been explained as Davis Cuestas. The extensive working out of valleys in the Ukrainian plateau regions, the characteristic cañon-like type of the valleys, the frequent occurrence of hills formed by erosion, lack of glacial formations and deposits, but evidences of great erosive and flattening action—these are the chief elements of difference between the plateau lands of the Ukraine and other Eastern European plateau lands. The plains of the Ukraine possess similarities to neighboring Central Europe only in the Northwest. Beyond this, they are all more or less decided steppes, the like of which are not met with in Central Europe, Hungary not excepted. At the same time the character of the steppes of the Ukraine is different from that of the steppe-region of Eastern Russia as well, chiefly because of the detail of the country and the peculiarities of vegetation, which are occasioned by differences of climate.

Hydrographically the Ukraine is distinguished by a web of rivers concentrating in the Pontus. The Ukraine embraces the river systems of the Dniester, Boh, Dnieper, Don and Kuban—not entirely, to be sure, yet by far the greater part, leaving only the sources of the two greatest rivers to the White and Great Russians. Only the most western borderlands of the Ukraine lie within the watersheds [[10]]of the Baltic Rivers (the Vistula district); only the most eastern mountain-spurs in the water-shed of the Caspian Sea (Terek and Kuma). We may therefore, without hesitation, conceive of the Ukraine hydrographically as the northern part of the Eastern European water-shed.

In respect to climate, the Ukraine occupies an independent position in Eastern Europe. In fact, de Martonne recently declared “the Ukrainian climate to be one of the main types of climate of the earth.” We shall not go so far as this, but we must emphasize the fact that the climate of the Ukraine differs no less from that of Poland, White Russia and Great Russia than does Germany’s climate from that of England or France. An important wind-partition crosses the Ukraine in winter from East to West, subjecting the entire southern part to the sway of the east wind. Winter in the Ukraine is strictly continental, with a coldness of 30 degrees, but not with the semi-polar character of the Russian or the Central European character of the Polish winter. The east and southeast winds by day prevent the snow-blankets, produced by the moist south winds of the Pontus, from ever becoming too heavy, especially in the Southern Ukraine, and cause them to disappear quickly in the spring. In the spring the temperature rises very rapidly. The summer of the Ukraine is the hot continental summer, and despite the predominant Atlantic west winds and the abundant precipitation, it is not sultry. Autumn is pleasant and dry.

The climate of the Ukraine, then, is the continental climate of the Pontus. Toward the west it merges into the Central European climatic zone at the border of Poland, into the Eastern European continental climate at the border of White and Great Russia, into the Aralo-Caspian dry climate at the eastern border. The southern borderlands of the Ukraine, like those of France, constitute a transition to the Mediterranean climate. [[11]]

In respect to its flora, the unique position of the Ukraine depends upon the fact that it embraces almost the entire region of the prairie-steppes of the Pontus, with their regions of transition to the Northern and Central European forest zone. Right east of the Don begin the steppes and desert-steppes of the Caspian region. Consequently, the Ukraine is the only country in Europe which has the prevailing character of the steppes. Here, again, this circumstance is of geographical importance and makes the Ukraine, in this respect also, a geographic unit.

The most important signs of independence as a geographic unit, however, are imparted to the Ukraine by its anthropogeographical conditions, to which we shall turn our attention in Book II of this little work.

We have now become acquainted with the natural foundations of the Ukraine as a geographic unit. One important characteristic of this geographic entity must especially attract our attention. The name of the country is Ukraine, which means border-country, march-land. It is an old historical name which originated in the course of the centuries and has become customary. And yet it is significant as hardly another name of a land or people could well be. For the Ukraine is a true borderland Europe, between Eastern Europe, and Western Asia. It lies on the borders of the European plicated mountain-girdle and of the Eastern European table-land. The Ukrainian Horst constitutes a tectonic border-post for the development of the entire European folded area. In the morphological sense as well, the Ukraine constitutes a decided borderland. Here the glacial formations give way to the erosive and flattening formation. Climatologically, too, the Ukraine is a decided borderland. Yet, most of all, does the character of the Ukraine as a land of boundaries and transitions appear in its biogeographical and anthropogeographical [[12]]conditions. In the Ukraine are merged the boundaries of two European forest regions—of the sub-steppes, transition-steppe, prairie-steppe zone, and of the Mediterranean region. The Ukraine is situated upon the boundaries of the European family of peoples—of Slavdom, of European culture—and, at the same time, upon the boundaries of that anthropogeographical structure which is so remarkable and so little known—the body social of Eastern Europe.

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Location and Size

The Ukraine lies between 43° and 54° north latitude and between 21° and 47° east longitude from Greenwich. If we look for our country on a map we will find that it lies as the northern hinterland of the Black Sea, in the southern part of Eastern Europe, just on the threshold of Asia. From the foot of the Tatra Mountains, from the sunny Hegyalia and cloud-wreathed Chornohora, from the silver-rippled San, from the dark virgin forest of Biloveza and the immense swamps of Polissye, to the delta of the Danube—so often sung in the lore of the Ukrainian folk—to the Black Sea, to the gigantic Caucasians and the Caspian, surrounded by brown desert steppes, extends our fatherland, the Ukraine. From the beginnings of the historical life of Eastern Europe, for one thousand two hundred years, the Ukrainian race has resided in this region, and has been able, not only to preserve its boundaries, but, after heavy losses, to regain and even to pass beyond them. And this continued thru centuries of stress, thru bloody wars, after the loss of the first and second national governments, and under the merciless pressure of neighboring states and peoples. That other nations, as the French, the Italians, the Spaniards, should have preserved their original seats, is not surprising; they were protected on all sides by high mountains and deep seas. All the more, therefore, must we admire the great vitality of the Ukrainian [[13]]nation, which has been able to retain in its possession a mother-country lying open, almost without any protection, to mighty enemies.

For the Ukraine lies at the southeastern edge of Europe, on the threshold of Asia, at the point where the easiest overland route connects the two continents. For an entire period of a thousand years, this border position was most disadvantageous and dangerous for the Ukraine; for Nature and History did not bring the Ukraine, placed as it is, into the proximity of that part of Asia which for thousands of years past had been inhabited by the rich civilizations of that continent. The Ukraine has always been the nearest European neighbor of the steppe-country of Central Asia. There, from the earliest beginnings of history, dwelt pillaging hordes of Nomads, who would flood Europe from this point. The Pontian steppes of the Southern Ukraine were, for these steppe-people, the natural military road to the West and Southwest, where the rich, civilized lands of the Mediterranean region lay invitingly open. For more than a thousand years, from the beginnings of the history of the Ukraine, these nomadic Asiatic tribes traversed the South Ukrainian steppes, covering the entire Ukraine with war and unspeakable misery. Huns, Avars, Khazars, Magyars, Pechenegs, Torks, Berendians, Polovs, Tatars, Kalmucks, infested the Ukraine in succession. Of all the European peoples, the Ukrainians always had to be the first to oppose these steppe-plunderers. The nomads always had first to force their way thru the Ukraine. Many of them were annihilated by the ancient Ukrainians; thus, the Khazars, Pechenegs, Torks and Berendians; others were held off, as the Polovs or the Kalmucks. But the Ukraine exhausted its strength in this eternal warfare, and, in the terrible stress occasioned by the Tatars, lost their ancient culture and their mighty state.

If, therefore, any one of the European nations may [[14]]claim the credit of having been Europe’s shield against Asiatic barbarism, it is the half-forgotten Ukrainian nation.

The border position of the Ukraine was fatal also, for the reason that the country lay, and lies, so far distant from the cultural centers of Europe. As long as the Byzantine Empire, with its cultural wealth, remained firm, a strong stream of culture flowed from the Pontus into the Ukraine. The decline and fall of the Byzantine Empire suddenly transferred the Ukraine to the furthest (in respect to culture) corner of Europe, close to the Ottoman Empire, which was at that time hostile to culture. The western neighbors of the Ukraine, the Magyars and Poles, acquired little of the culture of Western Europe in the time of their independence, and allowed still less to slip thru into the Ukraine. The Russians entered the circle of European culture only two centuries ago, and have made only superficial cultural progress since.

And yet the geographical location of the Ukraine is not without favorable features. The Ukraine embraces the entire northern coast of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azof, and holds considerable possibilities for oversea commerce. The proximity of Asia is no longer dangerous, but, on the contrary, very advantageous. A century and a half has passed since the power of the steppe-races was finally broken. Their heritage has been taken possession of, altho in a different manner, by the Ukrainian peasant, who has thickly settled the Pontian steppes. With plow in hand, he has reconquered the lands which his ancestors tried in vain to defend with the sword. Ukrainian colonization is still advancing irresistibly in the Crimea and in the fore-country of the Caucasus, and will, no doubt, within a very short time, flood these countries completely.

A further advantage of location lies in the circumstance that the Ukraine is situated on the shortest land-route from [[15]]Central Europe to the southern part of Central Asia and India, and commands a good portion of this route. This fact may, in the very near future, be of the greatest political and economic importance. At the same time, the Ukraine is the only one of all the East European countries which, thru its location, stands in the closest relations to the Mediterranean countries.

Reserving the detailed discussion of the Ukraine’s geographical location for the anthropogeographical part of my little book, let us now consider the size of the Ukraine.

The area of the Ukrainian territory is 850,000 square kilometers.

We see before us, therefore, a European country which is surpassed in area only by present-day Russia in Europe. No European people, with the solitary exception of the Russians, possesses so large a compact national territory as the Ukrainians. This characteristically Eastern European spaciousness of the territory, combined with the natural wealth of the region would, if coupled with Western European culture, make a fit dwelling-place for a world-power. On such ground as this, the possibilities for the development of a material and intellectual culture are almost unlimited.

But alas! The greatest poet of the Ukraine, Taras Shevchenko, has characterized his fatherland all too fittingly as “Our Land, but not belonging to us.” Upon its large and rich territory the Ukrainian nation has had to endure so many hard buffets of fate, that it must be considered, along with the Jews, the most sorely tried civilized race on earth. Even down to the present moment the Ukrainians are a helot race, which is forced to unearth the treasures of its fatherland for its hostile neighbors.

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The Black Sea and its Coasts

Altho for many centuries separated from the Pontus by the nomad-haunted steppe-border, the Ukrainian [[16]]nation is closely identified with this sea. An enormous number of legends and songs of the Ukrainian people deal with it; even in fanciful love-songs it is mentioned. And the intimacy of this East European nation with the Sea need not surprise us. The Black Sea, with which so much in Ukrainian song and story is connected, has had a significance in the history of the Ukraine which has not been forgotten in the unwritten traditions of the people. How many cultural and warlike memories are connected with the Black Sea! How much Ukrainian blood has mingled with its waters!

The Black Sea is not large (450,000 square kilometers). It is a landlocked sea, situated between Europe and Asia, and connected with the Mediterranean Sea by the narrow Straits of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles and the Sea of Marmora, which, geologically speaking, is a basin formed by subsidence. Great subsidences of the earth’s surface created the deep basin of the Pontus. The Pontus was a part of the extensive upper Miocene and Sarmatian inland sea, which slightly flooded large districts of the present European continent as far as the Vienna basin. Toward the end of the tertiary period, this inland sea shrank and separated into single sea basins. The Pontian basin became connected with the Mediterranean Sea later, in the latter part of the diluvial period, by means of great subsidences of recent date.

The present morphology of the Pontus is in full accord with this genesis. The northern part, as far as the line of communication between the Balkan and Yaila Mountains, is a shallow sea of a depth of less than 200 meters; the so-called bay of Odessa is barely 50 meters deep; the Sea of Azof, projecting to the northeast, barely 15 meters. But just on the southern border of the line of plicated mountains, which is broken at this point, the bottom of the Black Sea declines rapidly to greater depths (1500 meters) until, declining more gradually now, it attains the depth [[17]]of 2245 meters in the center of the oval-shaped main basin of the Pontus.

The salt content of the Black Sea is much smaller than that of the ocean, or even of the Mediterranean. The Sea is comparatively small, and receives a great deal of fresh water from the many and large rivers of the region which it drains, while the influx of salt water from the Mediterranean thru the shallow straits cannot be great. The salt content is on the average 1.8%; only at great depths does it reach 2.2%. The diluted surface layer shows barely 1.5% salt content; the Sea of Azof hardly 1%. The surface water, containing little salt but a great deal of air, cannot, because of the greater density of the lower layers of water, sink far, and this low degree of ventilation accounts for the fact that the waters of the Black Sea below a depth of 230 meters are saturated with sulphide of hydrogen, and thus preclude any possibility of organic deep-sea life.

Nevertheless, the Black Sea is notable for its beautiful blue-green color and the great transparency of its waters. A white disc, on being submerged, disappeared only at a depth of 77 meters.

The surface temperature of the Black Sea is subject to many fluctuations; from 27° C in midsummer to 5° C in winter. In severe winters the Sea is frozen over in the bay of Odessa for a short time; the Limans and the Sea of Azof regularly for from two to three months.

The Black Sea has been known since hoary antiquity as a dangerous, stormy sea. The waves, running as high as 10 meters, the short cross-waves caused by the proximity of the shores, the difficult approaches to the land, are still a great hindrance to navigation, especially in the winter time. Not without cause did the Greeks originally call it “the inhospitable sea,” until the great number of flourishing Greek settlements on its shores led them to change its name [[18]]to “hospitable sea.” Despite this euphemistic name, however, “Pontus Euxeinos,” the Black Sea has devoured many goods and lives, many Greek and Roman ships, many Turkish and Genoese galleys, many English and Russian steamers. And many a little Zaporog vessel sank in the dark waves of its native sea, “on white cliffs dashed to pieces,” as is related in the old folk-epics; many a one was driven to far-off hostile Turkish shores, to the destruction of its crews.

Being a closed interior sea, the Pontus has no noticeable tides. Marked changes of level are caused by the action of the wind. In the liman of the Boh, for example, they produce 20 centimeters difference of level in a day, sometimes even 40 centimeters; in the bay of Yahórlik as much as 46 centimeters. The Sea of Azof becomes 45 to 90 centimeters deeper when there is a west wind, up to 1 meter deeper in the case of south winds, and shallower by an equal amount when the winds are in the opposite direction. Slight changes of level are dependent also on the seasons. The Black Sea has its lowest water level in February, when the region which it drains is covered with snow; the highest in May and June, as a result of the melting of the snows and the early summer rains. These fluctuations, however, amount to only 25 cm. The currents of the Black Sea, too, are inconsiderable, because of its isolation. Outside of local currents which are caused by winds, we know of only one greater current, weak in itself, which encircles the Pontian Basin in a counter clock-wise direction and may be traced to the cyclonal motion of the air. The same conditions obtain on a smaller scale on the Sea of Azof and are reflected in the direction of the tongues of land along the coasts.

Despite the fact that the deep-sea region of the Black Sea is poisoned with sulphide of hydrogen, it possesses a rich flora and fauna in its surface layers. Enormous [[19]]shoals of all kinds of fish—sturgeon, hausen, sterlet, “kephal,” “bichok,” “balmut,” come to the coast and into the limans of the river deltas. For this reason the Pontian fishing industry has been considerable for thousands of years. The extraction of salt from the limans and salt lakes is also important. Before the age of the railroad the abundance of fish and salt of the Black Sea created a special trucking trade in the Ukraine, the so-called Chumaki, who came to the Pontian strand in whole caravans of oxcarts to take dried fish and salt in exchange for grain.

The Ukrainian coast of the Black Sea begins at the delta of the Danube and ends at the western spurs of the Caucasus. The greater part is flat coast, the smaller, steep coast.

At the northern Kilian arm of the Danube delta, where now the descendants of the Zaporog Cossacks gain a scanty living thru fishing, begins the coast of the Ukraine. The steppe approaches the sea with a steep declivity, which is bordered by a narrow strand of sand and pebbles. The coast runs evenly as far as the Dnieper delta, without any indentations. Even the famous port of Odessa is an artificial harbor.

Only at a point where a river, a streamlet, even a balka (step-glen, ravine) opens into the sea, is the steep incline of the steppe-plateau broken. We then see before us an enormous pond as it were, at the upper end of which the water-course enters and the lower end of which is locked from the sea side by a land-tongue or bar (Kossá, Peresip) as by a flat dam. This sea-water lake is called liman in Ukrainian.

Wherever a stream of great volume empties into a liman, the bar is severed at one or more places. These liman deltas are called, in Ukrainian, hirló. Limans which have such connections with the sea are broken. Of such a kind are the limans of the Kunduk, Dniester, Boh and [[20]]Dnieper. Where a little streamlet discharges which has not a sufficient volume of water to cover the loss from evaporation of the liman surface and still retain an excess for keeping open the outlet, then the bar of the liman is without an opening and the water contains a great deal of salt. Of this kind are, above all, the limans of Kuyalnik and Khadshibé near Odessa, the large, deep Tilihúl and many smaller ones. The water and the mud of such limans possess healing powers, and every summer thousands of patients travel to the hot shores of the limans to regain their health.

The limans are simply submerged eroded valleys of steppe rivers which are now being filled in by alluvial deposits. Therefore, the limans of all larger rivers are too shallow to serve as good harbors for the larger sea-going vessels. The liman of the Dniester allows entrance only to small ships drawing two meters of water; the gigantic Dnieper liman is only 6 m. deep, and only the Boh liman is accessible to larger sea-going ships. Systematic dredging, however, could, without a doubt, bring relief, and would change a number of the limans into profitable harbors.

Beginning at the liman of the Dnieper, the coast is strongly indented as far as the bay of Karkinit, but these indentations (Yahórlik, Tendra, Kharilgach) are closed off by long tongues of land and the undersea extension of the bar of Bakalsk. The west coast of Crimea is also a uniform liman coast, increasing constantly in height, however, toward the south. At the Alma delta the coast becomes steep and has two excellent harbors, Sevastopol and Balaklava, which are submerged deep valleys. The southeast coast of the Crimean peninsula is a strongly marked acclivitous shore. The steep descent of the Yaila Mountains has been transformed here, thru the abrasive action of the sea, into a beautiful coastline. Eruptive rock, capable of offering great resistance, is found here in places, [[21]]forming picturesque capes, jetties and crags, between which lie pretty little bays and coves. The agreeable climate, the clear sky, the good sea-baths and the beautiful country annually lure to this Ukrainian Riviera thousands of consumptives and health-seekers. There are rows and rows of cottage-colonies and mansions.

Beginning at the crescent-shaped bay of Feodosia, the coast again becomes lower and also has a number of salty lagoons and bars. Of the same description are the coasts of the Strait of Kerch, leading into the Sea of Azof, which is 35,000 sq. km. in area. This extremely flat sea is often compared to a liman. Numerous tongues of land (Biriucha, Obitochna, Berdianska, Kossa, etc.) jut out here into the sea, showing very clearly in their direction the effect of the cyclonal motion of the air. The low coast has an enormous number of limans and lagoons, e.g., Utluk, Mius, Molochni, Yeski, Akhtirski, Tamanski, Kisiltash, etc. The most remarkable part of the Sea of Azof, however, is the Sivash. A bar 111 km. in length shuts the Sivash off from the Sea of Azof, leaving only a connecting passage of 150 m., near Henichesk. The curiously ragged banks of red-clay, the salt swamps, lagoons and islands, the bracken, ill-smelling water, which is salty in summer, and in a few spots at other times as well, have given the Sivash the name of Foul Sea (Hnile More).

The eastern part of the Ukraine’s Black Sea coast is a mountainous cliff-coast again. The plications of the western Caucasus, which approach the sea obliquely, are here so quickly destroyed by the powerful abrasive action of the surf, that the erosive action of the rivers and mountain streams cannot keep pace. Therefore, the crest is difficult of access and only the two harbors of Novorossiysk and Gelendshik offer shelter for ships along this part of the coast. But even this shelter is doubtful, because of the bora-like winds. [[22]]

As we perceive from this description of the Ukrainian coast, it is not one which would promote navigation among the inhabitants. Lack of harbors, isolation, remoteness from the main lines of the world’s traffic, never could have an encouraging effect upon the development of navigation among the Ukrainians. Despite all this, however, they developed very high seafaring qualities in the time of the old Kingdom of Kiev and later on in the Cossack period, and the present age, too, has brought a revival of the nautical skill of the Ukrainian coast population. [[23]]

[[Contents]]

General Survey of the Physical Geography of Ukraine

[[Contents]]

The Ukrainian Mountain Country

Glancing at the map of the Ukraine, we perceive at once that in this country we should seek in vain for such a variety of surface configuration as is peculiar to Central or Western Europe. In Germany or France there appear in a comparatively small space the most varied landscape—chains of high mountains, central chains of mountains, terrace and hill country, plateaus and plains.

It is different here in our wide Ukraine. One can travel hundreds of miles in any direction without seeing a change in the character of the scenery. The uniformity which is typical for Eastern Europe is peculiar also to the Ukraine. But not to the extent that it is to Great Russia, where the endlessness of the flat country wearies the eye of the traveler. For there are in the Ukraine landscapes of high and central chains of mountains, picturesque hill districts and richly cut plateaus, marshy plains and steppes strewn with barrows. There is, then, in the Ukraine, a variety of surface configuration, but on a large scale, not as in Western or Central Europe, confined in a small space.

The morphological nucleus of the Ukraine is the closed group of plateaus, which extends from the country at the foot of the Carpathians and the Polish part of the Vistula region to the Sea of Azof. Pontian Plateau or Avratinian Ridge are the commonly used but incorrect names of this plateau group. The first designation might do, but the second transfers the name of a little destitute hamlet at the source of the Sbruch to a territory of hundreds [[24]]of thousands of square miles. We shall, therefore, select for this plateau group the name Ukrainian Plateau Group.

It forms a compact whole between the Carpathians and the Dnieper and is divided into the following individual sections: The Rostoch, between the San and Buh Rivers; Volin, between the Boh and the Teterev; Podolia, between the Dniester and the Boh; the Pocutian—Bessarabian Plateau, between the Dniester and the Prut; the Dnieper Plateau, between the Boh and the Dnieper. The plateau character continues at the rapids section of this river on the left bank, where, at some distance, the last member of the Ukrainian Plateau Group lies—the Donetz Plateau.

The plateau group of the Ukraine is bordered on the north and south by two plain districts. The northern district consists of adjoining lowlands—Pidlassye, Polissye, and the Dnieper plain—and their extensions along the Donetz; the southern district is made up of the long stretch of the Pontian steppe-plain, which, in the country at the foot of the Caucasus, merges into the Caspian desert-steppe.

Beyond the northern plain district, Ukrainian territory does not extend, except in the Don region, where it embraces the southern spurs of the Central Russian Plateau.

Besides these plateau and plain regions the Ukraine takes in also parts of three mountain systems of the European continent. The Ukraine is the only country of Eastern Europe which extends over into the region of the European mountains of plication. Parts of the Carpathians, the little Yaila chain of Crimea, and the western parts of the Caucasus lie, together with their environs, in Ukrainian territory.

From this general survey of the surface configuration of the Ukraine, we can easily see that more than nine-tenths of the surface of this land is taken up by plains and [[25]]plateaus. Nine-tenths of the Ukrainians have certainly never seen a mountain and do not even know what one looks like. Expressive of this circumstance is the fact that in the wide plateau and plain region of the Ukraine the most insignificant hills bear the high-sounding name of “mountain.” But, despite this, the Ukraine also has its share in the three mountain systems of Europe—the Carpathians, the Yaila, and the Caucasus. All three were formed thru plication of the rock-layers.

The vast plication-formed mountain range of the Caucasus, even in the small part belonging to Ukrainian territory, attains an alpine height; the scenery of the Yaila along the Crimean Riviera is wonderful, but the Carpathians, altho not as lofty as the Caucasus and not of such scenic beauty as the Yaila, are the dearest to the heart of the Ukrainian. For the Ukrainian nation expanded in the Caucasus only a century ago and has but just reached the Yaila. And the Eastern Carpathians have for more than a thousand years been a Ukrainian mountain range.

Still, hardly one-third of the 1300 km. curve of the Carpathians belongs to Ukrainian national territory. Toward the west the Carpathians are inhabited by Poles and Slovaks; in the east and south by the Roumanians.

The boundary-posts of the Ukrainian territory extend in the west beyond the famous defile of Poprad. From the rounded peaks of the mountain country where the last Ukrainian villages lie, one sees rising at a very short distance the imposing range of the Tatra; still nearer lie the cliffs of the Pienini, famous geologically as well as for their scenery. In the eastern part of the Carpathian chain, Ukrainian territory reaches the Prislop pass, which connects the valleys of the Golden Bistritz and the Visheva (Visso). To the Ukraine, then, belongs the sandstone district of the Carpathians at that point where it is highest [[26]]and most developed. It is called simply the “wooded Carpathians.”

The western part of the sandstone Carpathians which lies within Ukrainian territory is called the Low Beskid. It is also known as Lemkivski Beskid because it is inhabited by the Ukrainian mountain tribe of the Lemkes. The Low Beskyd extends from the defile of Poprad to the valleys of the Strviazh River, the Oslava (Lupkiv pass), and the Laboretz. It is a broad-backed but not a high mountain country. In long chains, gently undulating mountain ridges stretch from west to east and southeast. Their slopes are gentle; one can easily walk or even ride up, and numerous wagon-roads and highways lead straight over the crest or even along the edge of the crest. The peaks are rounded and of uniform height, except where an occasional gently vaulted mountain top rises above the low-hill country. Between gently sloping ranges there extend, in a longitudinal direction, valleys with watersheds and communicating passes. Broad, well-developed defiles separate the range into different sections. The Galician-Hungarian dividing-ridge has only slight gorges of genuine mountain passes.

The peaks and high passes of the Lower Beskid are insignificant. Only in the extreme west, on the Poprad and the Torissa, do the peaks reach a height of 1000 and 1100 m.; further toward the east hardly 700 to 800 m. The important Dukla Pass is hardly 500 m. above sea-level. In the middle of the Beskid mountain country we even see a great longish strip of lower country (“the Sianok Lowlands”) whose low hills are less than 300 m. high.

There is a connection between the insignificant height and soft landscape forms of the Low Beskid and the geological construction and evolution of the mountain range. This mountain country, like the whole sandstone-region of the Carpathians, is built up of strongly plicate [[27]]and compressed Flysch—a series of sandstones, slates, conglomerates, clays, etc., of the cretacian and tertiary ages. All these species of rock occur in this region in thin layers and have little power of resistance; everywhere the basic mountain ridge is covered with a thick coat of weathering loam; rock piles are found very seldom. There is added the fact that all the sandstone Carpathians of the Ukrainian territory have been evened out by the destructive action of water and air into a more or less perfect plain. Not until the quaternary was the “obliterated” range raised anew and transformed into a mountain district by the action of the rivers which were cutting in again.

The Low Beskid was once covered with great, mixed forests. Now the once splendid virgin forests are completely thinned and all the ill effects of forest destruction have visited the poor mountain country. The fertile soil was washed away on the mountain-sides and heaped up with rubble and mud in the valley bottoms. The tribe of the Lemkos is therefore, perhaps, the poorest of all the Ukrainians and is compelled to seek an existence in distant lands.

In the southern part of the Low Beskid the boundaries of the Ukrainian nation in Hungary reach the northern part of the Hegyalia-Sovari Ridge, which, at this point, is 1100 m. high, and is composed of extinct trachyte volcanoes.

To the east of the Lupkiv Pass begins the second section of the Ukrainian Carpathians—the High Beskid. It stretches to the southeast as far as the valleys of the Stri, Opir and Latoritzia Rivers (Pass of Verezki).

The High Beskid like the Low is composed of a number of parallel, weakly joined mountain ranges, which run northwest and southeast. The type of the Rost Mountains is, therefore, even more clearly marked in this part of the sandstone Carpathians than in the preceding. The mountain crests are gently sloped, the edge of the crests slightly curled, the height of the peaks constant, the [[28]]passes only walled passes. Toward the southeast, tho, the ridge steadily increases in height. The highest peaks are Halich (1335 m.), the beautifully pyramid-shaped rocky Piku (1405 m.) and the massive Polonina ruvna (1480 m.)

In the Flysch of the High Beskid, two species of sandstone attain greater power of forming layers and of resisting pressure—the chiefly upper cretacian Yamna sandstone and the oligocene Magura sandstone. The former forms beautiful groups of rocks on peaks and precipices. The cliffs of Noich, with its traces of a rock castle, are the most famous.

The longitudinal valleys are much less developed in the High Beskid than in the Low. They are traversed only by smaller brooks. All larger streams like the Strviazh, Dniester and Opir, flow thru well-formed passes. Expansions of valleys (in regions of soft slate) alternate with contractions of valleys (in regions of hard sandstone). Most remarkable are the deeply cut out winding valleys (San, Striy), which offer the best proof of the former smoothing down and the later raising of the mountains.

Beautiful beech and evergreen forests still cover large parts of the High Beskid. Above the tree-line (1200–1300m) we meet for the first time with the characteristic plant-formation of the Polonini (mountain pastures) which yield excellent pasturage for large and small cattle during the summer and create the foundation for a primitive dairy industry.

Along the southern foot of the High Beskid, and separated from it by a chain of longitudinal valleys, a long chain of mountains rises above the neighboring Hungarian plain, bearing the name of Vihorlat (the Burnt Out). The Rivers Uz (Ungh), Latoritzia and Bershava, have cut the Vihorlat into four sections. The range is lower than the Beskyd, since it is less than 1100 m. high, but it is strongly cut up by deep-gorged valleys, and has steep, [[29]]rocky precipices, bold rocky summits and pretty little mountain lakes. The range, which is covered with thick oak forests, owes its scenic character to its geological composition. The Vyhorlat is a line of extinct volcanoes, in the old craters of which the mountain lakes of the region lie. The firm trachyte lava forms picturesque rock walls and peaks. East of the Verezki Pass begins a new mountain section, perhaps the most characteristic one in the sandstone Carpathians. It extends toward the east as far as the passes of the Prut and the Black Tyssa (Theiss) and the Yablonitza Pass. This part of the sandstone Carpathians bears the name of Gorgani.

The uniform mountain walls of the Beskid give way here to shorter mountain ridges, strongly cut up by cross valleys. The main streams of the northern slope, Opir, Limnitzia—the two Bistritzas—flow thru deep, picturesque passes; still deeper are the valleys of the mountain streams which flow into the Theiss, as the Torez, Talabor, etc. It is a remarkable circumstance that the dividing border ridge is lower than the ridges facing it on the north and south, which are broken thru by magnificent passes.

The edge of the Gorgani ridge also shows traces of the old leveling-surface and has only small gorges, yet it is much more curled than in the Beskid. The ridge often becomes a sharp edge and the cone-shaped peaks further break its monotony. The height of the peaks is much greater than in the Beskyd. On the Galician side the Popadia attains a height of 1740 m.; Doboshanka, 1760 m.; Visoka, 1810 m.; Sivula, 1820 m.; in Hungarian territory the Stoh in the picturesque Bershavi group is 1680 m.; the Blisnitza, in the Svidovez Range, 1890 m., etc.

The ridges and peaks of the Gorgani are covered with seas of sandstone boulders and are, therefore, difficult of access. The light gray Yamna sandstone, of great resisting power, appears in this mountain section in very thick [[30]]layers, and is the cause of the greater height and the bolder forms which, in places, are suggestive of high mountain ranges. The energetic weathering process, aided by the cover of winter snow, breaks up the mighty sandstone layers into great rocks, boulders, fragments and rubble. Deep fissures yawn between moss and lichen-covered boulders, many boulders rock under the foot of the wanderer, and many of them, thru caving-in and thru accumulation, have formed natural chambers and hollows. The rocky ridges, covered with seas of boulders, are Arshizia, the Gorgan peaks, whence comes the name of the entire mountain range. The seas of boulders and rubble-stone are called Zekit or Grekhit.

In the highest groups of the Gorgani Range (especially in the Svidovez) are found also distinct traces of the glacial age, glacial excavations with small lakes or with swamps that have taken the place of lakes.

A splendid, only slightly thinned dress of virgin forest covers the Gorgani Chain. The lower forest section is composed of beech, ash and fir trees, the upper part of pines and stone-pines. The tree limit is very irregular and vascillates between 1100 and 1600 m. Mountain pastures are very rare, because of the seas of boulders and rubble-stone, but there are large and beautiful, tho not easily accessible, stocks of mountain pines.

The last section of the Ukrainian Carpathians is called Chornohora (Black Mountains). It extends from the Prut and the Black Theiss to the Prislop Pass; to the valley of the Visheva and of the Golden Bistritza. In this wide and long mountain district we find greater morphological variety than in the mountain sections hitherto discussed. In the wide zone of the northern foothills, which separate with a distinct edge from the sub-Carpathian hills and continue into the Bukowina, we find low ridges and rounded peaks, as in the High Beskid. Only in places on [[31]]peaks and valley sides piles of rock are seen. Then toward the interior of the range follows the wide vale of Zabie, imbedded in soft slate, and above it rises the mighty chain of the Chornohora, the only part of the sandstone region of the Carpathians which has high mountain formations. The chain is composed of the hard magura sandstone, rich in mica. A whole stretch of peaks here attains a height of 2000 m., the highest being the Hoverla (2058 m.). Well-formed, partly rocky ribs branch off from the main ridge on either side. The rock piles of the Shpitzi, Kisli and Kisi Ulohy, are some of the most imposing rock formations of the Carpathian sandstone region. Between the rocky ribs, finely developed glens lie on both sides of the main ridge of the Chornohora, the beds of the ancient glaciers. Waterfalls dash down the steep rock walls in silver streams—of particular interest is the cascade of the Prut under the Hoverla—and down below lie little crater lakes reflecting the patches of summer snow on the crater walls. Almost three-fourths of the year the Chornohoras are covered with snow. In summer the snow almost wholly disappears, and the beautiful carpet of flowers of the mountain pastures, only occasionally interrupted by dark green reserves of mountain-pine, spreads out over the ridges and peaks of the Chornohora. Every summer innumerable herds of cattle, small Hutzul horses and sheep are seen here. Then an intensive dairy industry enlivens the peak regions of the range for three months. The lower regions are still covered with extensive forests; in lower locations we find mixed forests here; in higher altitudes, almost pure stocks of pines.

Standing on one of the Chornohora peaks, on the Hoverla for instance, or the Petros or Pip Ivan, we see, in the near southwest, a new and strange mountain world. It is the third zone of the Chornohora Mountains, the mountain land of Marmarosh. Situated in the region of the headwaters [[32]]of the Theiss and orographically related to the Chornohora, the mountains of the Marmarosh are of entirely different geological composition and have a different morphological appearance. Gneiss and other kinds of crystalline slate, permotriassic and jurassic conglomerates and limestones, as well as eruptive rock of older and of more recent date, lend great geological and morphological variety to the Marmarosh Mountains. The high mountain character here is even more marked than in the Chornohoras. Rocky peaks, ridges, mountain walls, numerous craters, with small glacial lakes, adorn the Marmarosh mountains, which rise higher than 1900 m.: Pip Ivan, Farko, Mikhalek, Petros, Troiaga. Toward the southeast the range wanders over into South Bukowina, where its last boundary-posts, the rocky peaks of Yumalen and Rareu really stand on Roumanian ground. And in the south, beyond the Visheva Valley, which divides the settlements of the Ukrainian Hutzuls from those of the Roumanians, rises the magnificent lofty rampart of the Rodna Mountains, with its two peaks of 2300 m., Pietrosu and Ineu.

On the outside of the Carpathian curve stretches a hill country of varying breath, the sub-Carpathian hill-country, in Ukrainian: Pidhirye or Pidkarpatye. The mountain-edge of the Carpathian, which is at all points very distinct, rises steeply over the low-hill country at the foot, along an extended line in the neighborhood of the cities of Peremishl, Sambir, Drohobich, Striy, Kolomia. The Carpathian rivers leave the mountains by way of funnel-shaped valleys, bordered by boulder terraces, and spread their alluvial mounds over the low hill country. Wide stretches of meadow accompany the river courses; fields and woodland lie at a distance. The sub-Carpathian hill-country is built up of miocene gray clays which, along the edge of the Carpathians, contain an enormous treasure of petroleum, [[33]]ozokerite, kitchen salt and potash salts. Boulders lie on the clay, not only along the rivers, but also on the hilltops—traces of old watercourses, which transported Carpathian and northern rubble-stone toward the east in the direction of the Dniester. The yellowish cover of loam and loess lies over the whole, and its surface-layer, abounding in vegetable soil, is, in places, very fertile.

The sub-Carpathian hill country reaches to the two sub-Carpathian plains in the north—the Vistula and the Dniester Plain. Only along the European main divide a tongue of hill-country projects in the direction of Lemberg. In the glacial period, watercourses of great volume flowed directly across this hill-country divide, which, as might be expected, is now completely cleft by the bifurcation of the Vishnia, depositing considerable masses of rubble-stone and sand. Thru destruction of forests, the sands have become subject to wind action and dreary landscapes of sand-dunes have been formed.

Only the southeastern reaches of the Vistula Plain, extending along the San River to Peremishl are part of Ukrainian territory. The low loam bags, which lie between sandy and swampy valleys of the San, form the only rises of ground in this plain, which borders in the northeast on the spurs of the Rostoch.

The Dniester Plain extends in a broad ribbon along the river from the place where it leaves the mountains to the delta of the Striy. Its western part is a single great swamp region, a one-time large lake. The rivers flow on flat dams, and when the melting snows come and the rains of early summer, they overflow their banks and flood the swampy plains far and near. In some years the swamp region changes into a lake for days and weeks. In the dry season only a few swamp lakes remain, but the entire region remains a swamp and produces only a poor sour hay. Settlements lie only on the high banks of the rivers. [[34]]

The eastern part of the Dniester Plain extends beyond the great alluvial mounds of the Striy River, and then reaches over into the broad valley of the Dniester, which ends in the Podolian Plateau at the point where the river enters. The eastern Dniester Plain is not very swampy, and only in places do ravines, swamps, and old river beds accompany the river course. For the most part pretty meadows, fields and woods lie on the thick sub-layer of rubble-stone and river-loam.

If the Carpathians represent a primeval section of Ukrainian ground, the mountain ranges of Crimea and the Caucasus were entirely strange to the Ukrainians not so very long ago. How many Ukrainian slaves, in the time of Tartar oppression, cursed the rocky-wall of the Yaila which separated them from their beloved home. How discontented was the enslaved remainder of the Zaporogs when transported to the Western Caucasus.

Now the conditions are quite changed. The great colonizing movement of the Ukrainians touched the Yaila as much as twenty years ago, and has extended the frontiers of the Ukrainian settlements along the outer mountains of the Caucasus to the Caspian Sea. And the once strange, hostile mountain-worlds have opened their doors to Ukrainian colonization.

The Yaila Mountains of Crimea are, in comparison with the Carpathians, a small mountain system hardly 150 km. long and 35 km. wide. They lie in three parallel ranges, separated by longitudinal valleys, along the southeast shores of the peninsula. The northern declivities of all the ridges are gently sloping, the southern ones steep. The southern main range exceeds a height of 1500 m. with its peaks, Chatirdagh, Roman-chosh, and Demir Kapu. This main ridge, which declines toward the sea in steep precipices, is flat and rocky on top, strewn with rock-craters; [[35]]it bears the name Yaila and serves as a lean mountain pasture. Deep gorges cut the rough surface of the summit and divide it into single table mountains.

The mountains of Crimea, like the Carpathians, are mountains of plication. They are composed of Jurassic, chalk, and miocene-layers. The large blocks of lime of the Jurassic, which rest on softer slates and clays, form the main ridge of the mountains. Besides craters, we find, in the limestone mountains of the Yaila, impassable furrows (German Karrenbildungen) and numerous hollows.

Very picturesque is the magnificent precipitous decline of the main range of the Yaila to the sea. Here the entire southern part of the range has sunk in great ravines and the resisting power of the eruptive rocks which appear here has created a coastal mountain landscape of great beauty. Protected by the mountain wall from northerly winds, a Mediterranean flora has been able to develop here at the southern foot of the range, while beautiful leafy forests partly cover the declines of the mountains.

On the peninsula of Kerch, which forms the eastern extreme of Crimea, a low steppe-like hill-country extends seemingly as a prolongation of the Yaila Range. The new tertiary clays are here laid in flat folds, which are more closely related to the Caucasus. Here, and on the quite similarly formed Taman peninsula, we find many small cone-shaped mud volcanoes which emit gases, smoke, and thinly flowing blue-gray mud from their miniature craters.

The magnificent lofty range of the Caucasus forms the boundary-post of the Ukraine on the east. Only the western part of the mountain system lies within Ukrainian territory. We shall, therefore, discuss it quite briefly.

The Caucasian Mountain system, which is 1100 km. in length, lies like a huge wall of rock between Europe and Asia. Most geographers consider the Caucasus as part of [[36]]the latter continent, which is correct in so far as these mountains show many characteristics of Asiatic mountain ranges. First of all they are hard to cross, much harder than the highest mountains of Europe, the Alps. Along a stretch of 700 km., the ridge of the Caucasus descends only twice to a level of 3000 m. On the other hand, the Caucasus is not wide—on the average only 150 km.—and at the point where the Grusinian army road crosses the range, barely 60 km. Then, the Caucasus, like many mountain ranges of Asia, stretches in a straight line from the peninsula of Taman to the peninsula of Apsheron, famous for its abundance of petroleum.

The Caucasus is a plication-formed mountain range composed of folded crystalline and sedimentary rock of varying ages. Along huge ravines, the entire southern part of the range has sunk down, so that the highest crystalline central zone of the range declines directly and very steeply toward the south. The highest Caucasus peaks are old extinct volcanoes, set over the basic mountains; the Elbrus (5630 m.), at the source of the Kuban and the Kasbek (5040 m.), at the source of the Terek. Proof that the subterranean powers are still active are the numerous tectonic earthquakes of Transcaucasia.

The main chain of the Caucasus possesses, besides the volcano peaks, many rocky granite peaks 4000–5000 m. in height, and, besides these, hundreds of lower peaks, all of which find their counterparts in the Alps. The present glaciation of the Caucasus is very considerable, while that of the glacial period was also very extensive and determined the present mountain forms of the Caucasus. Only the most beautiful ornament of the one-time glacial landscape is lacking in the Caucasus—the lakes, which are so abundant in the Alps.

All the larger Caucasus rivers rise as milky glacial brooks in the main range. Then, by way of deep cross-valleys, [[37]]they break thru the lower ranges, which face the main ridge in several rows, and are composed of sedimentary rock formations of jurassic, cretaceous, and old-tertiary age. Their crests and peaks become constantly lower and more rounded toward the north. Beautiful mountain pastures and thick virgin forests, full of animals that may be hunted, cover the mountains.

In the country at the foot of the Caucasus, a low hill-region is spread, which consists mainly of new-tertiary layers abounding in petroleum. At the Ponto-Caspian divide, the hill-district and plateau of Piatihorsk and Stavropol, which is composed of recent lime formations, projects from the Caucasus. From a height of 600 m. this structure declines slowly in flat hills toward the west, north and east to the Ponto-Caspian steppe-plain, in which lies the famous Manich Furrow. The Manich, or rather Calaus River rises like the Kuma in the Plateau of Stavropol and separates, in the Furrow, into two branches. The one flows thru extended Manich lakes toward the northeast into the Don River, and, incidentally, into the Sea of Azof; the other turns toward the south to the Kuma River and the Caspian Sea. But its waters reach this goal very rarely; the burning sun and the sandy soil of the Caspian steppe rob the little river of its small supply of water.

[[Contents]]

The Ukrainian Plateau Country

The Carpathians, the Yaila and the Caucasus, are immovable boundary-walls, marking the southern borders of the Ukraine. On its wide surface there are only these narrow zones of mountain country. All the remaining territory of our fatherland is occupied by plateaus and plains. Upon these the Ukrainian nation has lived since the dawn of history. Not cloud-capped highlands, but level, lightly undulating plateaus, furrowed by picturesque [[38]]river valleys and immeasurable plains, are characteristic of the Ukraine.

Between the Carpathians and the Ural Mountains there extends an immense space which once bore the name of Sarmatian Plain and is now generally called the Russian Tableland, tho the name East European Lowland would be geographically the most fitting. In this space, which embraces half the surface of Europe, only one group of hills in the Pokutia rises above 500 m., and only one small part of the Podolia above 400 m. The entire remaining space of Eastern Europe, with slight exceptions, keeps below the 300 or even 200 m. level.

In the northern part of Eastern Europe, the lands over 200 m. high take up very little room. Like great flat islands, they rise gently from the spacious cool lowlands. In Central Europe the surface of the high part of the flat country is relatively the greatest, but these rises of ground are so insignificant and the transitions to the low plain so imperceptible, that the main features of the surface of this part of Europe were only discovered in the second half of the Nineteenth Century.

In the Ukrainian south of Eastern Europe the character of the ground elevations is different. They are the highest of all in Eastern Europe and separate very distinctly, largely by means of steep edges, from the surrounding plains. The genuine plateau landscape is the type of landscape peculiar to the Ukraine.

The Ukrainian plateau group, the real morphological nucleus of the land about which its borderlands are gathered, extends from the sub-Carpathian country and the Polish Vistula-region to the Sea of Azof and the Donetz River. It consists of the following plateaus: Rostoche, Podolia, Pokutye (Bessarabia), Volhynia, Dnieper Plateau and Donetz Plateau.

We shall begin our survey of the Ukrainian plateaus [[39]]with the Podolia. The Podolian Plateau is the most massive of all the plateaus in the Ukraine, the highest, and the one possessing the most distinctive features of a heavily cut high plain.

If, leaving the Carpathians, we overlook the surrounding country from the edge of the mountain range, we observe behind the wide stretch of the sub-Carpathian hills and plains, just on the horizon, wide, flat elevations, which obstruct the horizon in the north. These are the edges of the Podolian Plateau.

The western boundary of Podolia is formed by the wide valley of the little Vereshitza River, a valley covered with swampy meadows and large ponds. On the south and southeast, Podolia is bounded by the valley of the Dniester River, which is first wide and then narrows down to a cañon. Between the lower course of the Dniester and the Boh, the Podolian Plateau gradually leads into the Pontian Steppe-plain. On the north and northeast, Podolia is bounded by the rocky valley of the Boh and then by the river divide, which extends toward the west, between the basins of the Dniester and Dnieper Rivers. Near its limit begins the well-known steep edge which forms the decline of the Podolian Plateau to the plain of the Buh. From Brody to Lemberg, the northern boundary of Podolia is very clearly marked by this steep edge.

Despite its distinct plateau character, Podolia is by no means lacking in beautiful landscapes. The northern, steep, border of the Plateau occasionally rises for 200 m. above the swampy Buh plain, and its height above sea level is in some places 470 m. The whitish-gray chalk-marl which forms the basis of this land grade glitters from a distance, exposed thru the action of the water, which flows down the steep side. The miocene sandstone lying above shows fantastic rock piles and ravines. Beautiful beech forests are to a great extent still maintaining themselves [[40]]on the steep edge. From a distance, everything produces the illusion of a high forest-covered chain of hills. On climbing it, however, we see in the south only an unbounded lightly undulating elevated plain, with flat valleys filling the entire view.

Toward the southwest, too, Podolia declines with a similar steep border, but this one is neither so uniform nor so high and picturesque. These steep borders owe their origin to a recent uprising, which has affected the Podolian Plateau, especially in the west, since the glacial period. To the same cause the picturesque, beautifully wooded, eroded hill-country of the Opilye owes its origin, a section which extends southeast from Lemberg in the regions of Rohatin and Berezani to the Dniester, and which, with its peaks, reaches a height of 440 m. Most remarkable, however, is the long chain of rocky hills which extends from Brody to the southeast toward Kamenetz Podilski. This chain of hills, which bears the name of Toutri, is marked on all maps by the wilfully chosen name of Medobori. The limestone rock, which contains a great amount of fossils, forms fantastic crags on the more than 400 m. peaks of the hill-chain, which look down upon the land like old fortresses. The entire chain of hills is a new-tertiary coral and briozone reef which, after the withdrawal of the sea, remained behind as a long rock dyke.

Beyond this hilly region the entire Podolian Plateau has a flat, undulating surface. Beginning as far back as the upper Sereth and Sbruch we find typical steppe-plains. The farther southwest, the more flat, undulating and steppe-like sections do we meet, until finally the Podolian elevation gradually merges in the Pontian steppe-plain.

Much variety and beauty is given to the appearance of the Podolian landscape by the valleys of the Dniester tributaries on the left. In their upper parts they are wide and have flat, swampy ground, many ponds and bogs [[41]]and gentle valley declines. In its further course the river begins to cut in more and more deeply, the valley becomes constantly narrower and deeper and winds on in regular bends, the valley-sides become higher and steeper, bare walls of rock take the place of the soft green slopes. We are in a Podolian “yar,” in a miniature cañon.

In the sides of the yars the geologic history of the Podolia is engraved in imperishable letters. The river has sawed the plateau thru as tho with a gigantic saw, and has exposed the various layers of stone. As a rule they lie nearly horizontally above one another.

The oldest rock species of Podolia are the granite-gneisses, which were folded and disturbed in pre-cambrian times. The lines of the folds and breaks stretch principally north to south. Granite composes the rocks of the Dniester rapids near Yampol and the numerous rapids of the Boh River, in whose rocky vale this primitive rock formation appears distinctively. On the granite base, almost horizontally, slightly turned toward the southwest, lie dark slate and limestone, upper silurian at first in West Podolia, then the devonic layers, of which the old red sandstone attracts the eye most of all, because of the dark red coloring which it gives to the steep walls of the Podolian cañons. These are followed by chalk layers, and, last of all, by recent tertiary formation whose gypsums form picturesque groups of rocks on the heights of the Yari walls. In the mighty gypsum stores of Podolia may be found many a large, beautiful cave, with wonderful alabaster stalactites.

All tributaries on the left side of the Dniester, beginning at the Zolota Lipa, flow into yari-cañons of this sort. The most beautiful and magnificent is the cañon of the Dniester, whose walls often exceed a height of 200 m. It cuts thru the high plateau in adventurous windings, every curve revealing new, beautiful prospects over the high, concave, steep edge, torn by ravines, and the gently rising [[42]]convex banks. In deep gorges the yari of the tributaries open into the yar of the main stream. Between the defiles stretches the flat, hardly undulating plain. In the summer only endless waving grain-steppes present themselves to the view of the traveler, only here and there a little wood appears on the horizon, or a lone farm. Suddenly the wood seems to end, the traveler is confronted by a deep, steppe-walled valley, down the sides of which climbs the road. And below, on the silvery river, amid the green of the orchards, lies village after village.

The further to the east, the more frequent do the yari become, and the balkas (gorges) similar to them but smaller; yet these are not so deep and picturesque. In the regions of Tiraspol Ananiv the entire plateau surface is very profusely cut by these defiles. In the district of Ananiv the balkas take up one-seventh of the entire surface. The plateau is cut up by these water crevasses into innumerable narrow fens.

The balka, like the yar, owes its existence to the erosive activity of flowing waters. On the Dniester we see, on both sides of its deep yars, great masses of old river boulders, which lie on the summit of the plateau beneath the thick cover of loam. They are boulder deposits of the pre-glacial Dniester. Later, when the recent raising of the Ukrainian plateau group began, and it occurred with particular force in the Podolian Plateau, the rivers cut in, and in the course of thousands of years formed their present picturesque defiles.

The entire surface of the Podolian Plateau is covered with a thick mantle of loess, which was formed in the desert and steppe period following the glacial age. In the manner in which the loess is heaped up, in the symmetry of the river valleys, whose western declivities are regularly steeper, in the general arrangement and formation of the valleys of Podolia, the great influence of winds may be distinctly recognized. [[43]]

The uppermost loess layer has been transformed thruout Podolia into the famous black earth (Chornozem). Hence Podolia has for ages been famous for its fertility. “In Podolia,” says an old Ukrainian proverb, “bread grows on the hedgeposts and the hedges are of plashed sausages.” On the other hand, Podolia suffers greatly from lack of forests. The large areas of forest which still existed in the 16th and 17th Centuries have now divided to small woods. The effects of forest destruction were not slow. Many springs and brooks have dried up, the rivers have languished, so that in particularly dry summers there is often a dearth of water. On the other hand, after the cutting down of the forests, began the destructive activity of the gorges, which extend after every strong rain and are able in a short time to transform a rich agricultural district into a maze of ravines.

Between the Podolian Plateau and the hilly sub-Carpathian country lies the Pocutian-Bessarabian Plateau.

The far-stretching narrow plateau section which lies between the valleys of the Dniester and the Prut is called Pokutye (land in the corner) in the west, while in the east the name Bessarabia (properly Bassarabia) is commonly used. In the west the plateau country reaches the valleys of the Bistritza and Vorona in the sub-Carpathian region; in the southeast it passes over into Pontian steppe-plain.

On the Dniester one sees almost no difference between the character of Podolia on the left bank and of Pocutia or Bessarabia on the right. On both sides the same valley slopes, composed of the same rock layers—except that the one on the right bank is more compact, because the Dniester receives only few and small tributaries on this side. Only at some distance from the course of the Dniester do the peculiarities of the Pokutian-Bessarabian Plateau appear to the view.

The western part of the plateau, which bears the name [[44]]of Pokutye and extends to the east as far as the hill-group of Berdo-Horodishche, has a level, very flat, undulating surface. And yet it is a typical karstenite country, affected by the existence of great strata of gypsum. The region has a very great number of funnel-shaped depressions which are called Vertep and are altogether analogous to the Carso dolomites. They originated thru the dissolving action of the subterranean water in the gypsum strata. The funnel walls are always steep on one side, gray gypsum rocks rise like walls over the bottom of the funnel, which is often occupied by a small lake. Many brooks disappear in the karstenite funnels, to continue their course as subterranean streams. Nor does Pokutye lack other marks of a karstenite region. The action of the subterranean waters has, by dissolving the gypsum masses, formed large caves, which are famous for their beautiful stalactites of white alabaster. The best known are the cave of Lokitki, near Tovmach, and in the neighboring South Podolia, the caves of Bilche Zolote and the recently discovered magnificent caves of Crivche.

However, the karstenite country of the Pokutye cannot bear comparison with the karstenite regions of Krain, Istria and Croatia. Gypsum is not limestone, and its strength is insignificant as compared with strength of the lime-stone in genuine karstenite regions. A genuine karstenite formation therefore does not exist in Pokutye, and a thick cover of clay is only in exceptional cases broken by gypsum rocks.

The Pokutian Plateau is much lower than the Podolian. Only in isolated places does it attain a height of 370–380 m. and becomes constantly lower toward the east. But north of Chernivtzi (Czernowitz) it rises to a height which we look for in vain in all the rest of the Ukrainian plateau group. The wooded hill-group of the Berdo Horodishche here reaches 515 m., the greatest height above sea level [[45]]to be found between the Carpathians and the Ural. In the east, Berdo Horodishche passes over into the chain of hills of Khotin, which attains a height of 460 m. and marks the eastern end of the Pocutia. The southeastern long and wide Bessarabian section of the plateau is divided into far-reaching narrow marshes by the flat valleys of the Prut and Reut Rivers. The Prut-Dniester river divide attains a height of 420 m. (Megura hill) in the headwater region of the Reut south of the city of Bilzi. The southeastern part of the Bessarabian plateau consists of very numerous low marshes, which lie between flat valleys. The plateau becomes constantly lower and flatter and passes imperceptibly over into the Pontian Steppe-plain.

The third member of the Ukrainian plateau group is the Rostoche. Looking from the summit of the castle mountain of Lemberg, famous for its beautiful prospect, we see, just behind the broad valley of the Poltva River, a chain of high wooded hills which stretch toward the northeast. They form the spurs of the Rostoche.

The Rostoche, called also the Lemberg-Lublin Ridge, lies, a profusely cut, hilly, narrow plateau, which is bounded on the one side by the San and Vistula Plain, on the other side by the low country of the Buh. Toward the southwest the Rostoche has a steep rim, which, as a matter of fact, is rather insignificant-looking; toward the east it resolves itself into parallel hill-ridges, which gradually become lower and between which lie marshy valleys.

The southern part of the Rostoche, which merges with the Podolian Plateau near Lemberg and extends to the broad, sandy and marshy glacial river valley of Tanva toward the northwest, is a plateau transformed into an erosive hill-country. The highest hills attain a height of 400 m. The river valleys are in general flat; only along the steep borders of the plateau are they cut deep. The steep western border is very picturesque, with its deep gorges and [[46]]loess walls. Many vigorous springs appear here, among them the well-known Parashka spring, from which a heavy column of water rises from time to time.

The oldest rock layer of the Rostoche is the chalk-marl. Above it lie, in almost undisturbed horizontal layers, miocene limestone, sandstone, clay, sand, Diluvial loam, while sand and broken stone with many boulders, which are of unmistakable northern origin and were transported by glaciers and streams of the ice period as far as the southern part of the Rostoche, form a heavy cover everywhere. The ground is not very fertile, sand and marl soil being particularly wide-spread.

The northern part of the Rostoche, beyond the Tanva valley, is a broad, slightly undulating plateau, which, in its highest part, reaches a height of only 340 m. The western edge of the plateau is distinct and steep and declines in places 100 m. to the low country of the Vistula. Toward the north the plateau surface declines very gradually and merges almost imperceptibly into the plain of the Pidlassye. The river valleys, as those of the Buh, Vepr, are broad, flat and marshy.

The geological constitution of the northern Rostoche is almost entirely similar to that of the southern part. Its soil cover, too, is not very fertile, and only great woods have survived, especially in the districts of the old morainic sand and loam. Only in the neighborhood of the Pidlassye does the soil become more fertile. For the configuration of surface of the Rostoche, the recent post-glacial raising of the ground has also been of great significance, altho here it was not nearly so intensive as in Podolia.

The Volhynian Plateau extends over a broad space between the Buh in the west and the Teterev in the east, between the swampy plain of the Polissye in the north and the Dniester-Dnieper watershed and the upper Boh valley in the south. The Volhynian Plateau does not [[47]]possess the compactness of the Podolian or Rostoche Plateau. The swampy lowland of the Polissye extends along the rivers into the heart of Volhynia, thereby dividing its plateau country into several sections of different size. Likewise, the inner structure and geological constitution of Volhynia is variable. Western Volhynia, situated between the Buh and Horin Rivers, has a sub-layer of chalk marl, which is capped in places by layers of clay and sandstone and limestone of recent tertiary date. Eastern Volhynia lies entirely in the region of the primeval Ukrainian Horst, whose plicate granite-gneiss sub-layer is covered by old tertiary deposits. In this tectonically disturbed region we meet with traces of early volcanic action. Near Berestovetz, Horoshki, etc., species of eruptive rock appear as signs of radical disturbances of the earth’s surface.

The surface soil of Volhynia is black soil only in the south. Beyond that we find here sandy soil, white earth and loamy soil, as signs of a one-time glacial covering and the action of fluvio-glacial waters. Many regions of loamy ground are rich in vegetable soil and not without considerable fertility.

The lowest part of the Volhynian Plateau is the western part, which lies between the broad, marshy, flat valleys of the Buh and the Stir. The slightly undulating, almost level plateau surface, which declines imperceptibly toward the Polissye, here just attains a height of 200 m., while the next section, between the Stir and the Horin is the highest part of Volhynia. As an extension of the above-mentioned northern edge of Podolia, the Kremianetz-Ostroh hill-country intrudes between the two rivers. Over 400 m. high, near the city of Kremianetz, it declines toward the north, a steep section torn by gorges and ravines. Near Dubno, the plateau is cut into a picturesque hill country with a maximum height of 340 m. The hills of Volhynia have steep, often rocky declines and flattened rocky peaks. [[48]]North of Rivne and Lutzk they finally begin to be lower and more rounded, then they dwindle to a flat billowy tract of land, until, at the borders of the Polissye, we see only an almost perfect plain.

Between the Horin and Sluch Rivers, the Volhynian Plateau becomes more uniform. Its surface is flat, and broad valleys of the rivers which flow toward the east, forming numerous ponds, part it slightly. Only in the south is a height of more than 300 m. reached; in the north, where the granite sub-layer appears everywhere, especially in river valleys, barely 200 m.

The eastern part of the Volhynian Plateau extends, at first, as a narrow plateau zone between the valleys of the Boh and the Teterev on one side and of the Sluch on the other. Then the plateau spreads out like a fan toward the north. At the source of the Boh and the Sluch, the plateau reaches a height of 370 m.; at the sources of the Teterev, 340 m. Here the surface is level, except that here and there low, gently-rounded hills arise. In the broad, northern part, the Volhynian Plateau becomes much lower and finally separates into individual plateau islands, as, for example, near Novhorod-Volinsky, Zitomir, Ovruch, which rise gently from the marshy lowlands.

The valleys of the Volhynian rivers, broad, flat, with gentle slopes and marshy bottoms, differentiate the Volhynian landscape most strongly from the Podolian. The Volhynian landscape presents a view of flat, wooded hills, slowly flowing streams between flat banks, marshes and marshy meadows, sandy ground—all signs of the proximity of the Polissye.

The Dnieper Plateau has the outlines of a longish, irregular polygon. On the northwest it is bounded by the rocky valley of the Teterev, on the southwest by the Boh River, on the south and southwest by the Pontian steppe-plain, on the northeast by the Dnieper River. [[49]]

This great space, however, does not constitute a uniform plateau. The broad river valleys and broad depressions which traverse the plateau have parted it into several sections. Only the uniform sub-layer and the geologic character, as well as the uniform appearance of the landscape, determine the natural unity of the region.

The sub-layer of the Dnieper Plateau is made up of the primitive granite-gneiss clod of the Ukrainian horst. The granite-gneiss formations were folded in the pre-cambrian period. The folds and quarries stretch principally from north to south, and appear very distinctly near Zitomir and Korsun, and at the rapids of the Dnieper. The mesozoic layers also, which lie close to the granite-horst, are folded at Trekhtimiriv. The tertiary layers, which form a thin cover over the granite, lie mostly in undisturbed horizontal lines. Only along the right, steep bank of the Dnieper we see them folded and broken thru by quarries. In the neighborhood of the Shevchenko barrow they appear most distinctly.

The occurrence of eruptive rock in the south of the plateau, appearing in mound-shaped flat hills, is, however, connected only with the old disturbances in the horst.

This species of rock of the Dnieper Plateau appears almost solely in the declivities of the valleys and balkas. Otherwise it is covered everywhere by an immense mantle of loam, loess, and chornozyom. The glacial deposits, whose southern boundary passes through Zhitomir, Tarashcha, Chihirin, and Kreminchuk, present, in the territory of the Dnieper Plateau, examples of genuine fluvio-glacial moraine, as well as sands of no great depth, and in rather erratic distribution.

The configuration of surface of the Dnieper Plateau is varied enough. The greatest height (300 m.) is reached south of Berdichiv. Toward the east and southeast the plateau becomes constantly lower. This lowering, however, [[50]]does not proceed regularly, different sections of the plateau presenting different conditions in this respect.

The section projecting furthest toward the west to the Sob and Ross Rivers is a level, slightly divided plateau, with a maximum height of 300 m. The tributaries of the Teterev, Irpen and Ross flow slowly in flat valleys thru whole rows of ponds. Where they enter the plain they finally have steep granite banks and rocky beds. The plateau section between the Sob and Ross Rivers in the west and the Siniukha and Huili Tikich in the east has more valleys. The river valleys and balkas are deeper, their sides rockier, and thru them the plateau is transformed in places into chains and groups of flat hills. But this plateau section is lower than the preceding one, attaining only 260 m. Still lower is the section between the Siniukha and the Inhuletz. It attains a height of only 240 m. and is very even. The granite sub-layer appears here even in the level steppe; the valleys and balkas are cut deep with rocky bottoms and rocky slopes.

Besides these three sections, the Dnieper plateau embraces two long strips of plateau which stretch along the right bank of the Dnieper. The one is surrounded by the Dnieper, Irpen, and Ross Rivers, the other stretches from the source of the Tiasmin to the rapids of the Dnieper. The height of these strips of plateau is negligible, the highest points attaining just 190 m. near Kiev, 240 m. between Trekhtimiriv and Kaniv, 250 m. near Chihirin, and barely 180 m. at the first of the rapids. The steep declivity with which the plateau strips descend to the Dnieper plain emphasize the antithesis between plateau and plain in this region very markedly.

The difference in level surpasses 100 m. near Kiev and Katerinoslav and 150 m. near the Shevchenko barrow, not far from Kaniv. The declivity of the right bank of the Dnieper is much torn by gorges, and everywhere we [[51]]see picturesque rock piles. The steep bank appears, especially to a plain-dweller, like a chain of mountains and is even called “the mountains of the Dnieper.” The idea of a “mountain bank” of the Dnieper, therefore, need not be rejected outright. The aspect of Kiev and the Shevchenko barrow is one of the most beautiful in the entire Ukraine.

On ascending this “mountain chain,” however, which appears so imposing from the left bank of the river, and looking toward the west, we find before us only a slightly undulating plateau surface, with rounded dome-shaped hills and deep valleys, belonging to the right-hand tributaries of the Dnieper.

The nature of the landscape of the Dnieper Plateau is, consequently, different from that of the Volhynian or Podolian. The lightly undulating plateau, gradually becoming flatter toward the east and south and broken up only near the river valleys into flat dome-shaped hills; the valleys of the rivers, wide, not deep, and yet with rocky river beds and rocky slopes, with loess gorges and walls; the mighty Dnieper with its picturesque mountain shores; the never-ending grain steppes crossed by little woods, mohilas and long, extended old walls of rock—this is the landscape view of the old Kiev country, the heart of the Ukraine.

The Dnieper Plateau becomes constantly lower toward the southeast, without, however, losing its original landscape nature in the least. Near the Dnieper rapids we see, quite distinctly, that the miocene-covered sub-layer of granite of the Ukrainian plateau group stretches straight across the river and is the cause of its rapids. But the differences in level at that point are no longer different from the variations in a plain. In the region of the source of the Samara and along the Donetz the land finally rises above the 200 m. level again. We are now in the Donetz Plateau.

As near as Isium we confront the first boundary post [[52]]of the plateau in the steep chalk rocks of Mt. Kremianetz on the Donetz River. Further down we see the picturesque rocks of the famous monastery of “the Holy Hills.” All these are parts of the northern verge of the plateau, which is its limit on the north. Near Slavianoserbsk and Luhansk this picturesque border reaches a height of 70 m. The course of the Donetz also forms the eastern boundary; the southern boundary is formed by the small strip of the Pontian Plain on the shore of the Sea of Azof; the western border is denoted by the plain on the left bank of the Dnieper.

The Donetz Plateau stretches in a long flat ridge from N. W. W. to S. E. E., and extends a flat side-ridge to either side. The longer one goes southward, almost as far as Mariupol, the other northward to Bakhmut. The surface of the plateau is very level and declines very flatly toward all sides. Only light billows of land traverse the steppe surface, which is strewn with countless tumuli. In the south these hills often have a core of granite. The river valleys have steep, altho not high slopes. They divide the uniform surface of the heights but slightly. From the surface configuration one could never guess that at this point there was once a mountain range which fell victim to the exogenous forces of the earth’s water and air blanket. Only an insignificant part of the surface of the Donetz Plateau lies more than 300 m. high; the highest point, Tovsta Mohila, barely reaching 370 m.

In its inner structure it is entirely different from all other parts of the Ukrainian group of plateaus. The entire south and west of the plateau is composed of folded granite-gneiss, of the Azof part of the horst, capped by a thin tertiary layer, and in many places (especially between Volnovakha and Kalmius) broken thru by eruptive rock formations. Next to these, in the north and south of the plateau, lie limestone, slate, clay and sandstone formations of devonian, carbonic, permian, jurassic and cretaceous [[53]]age, folded and broken thru by ravines. Over this leveled basic range lie the horizontal tertiary layers. The great development of the coal-containing carbon layers gives to the monotonous, only recently bared steppe elevation of the Donetz Plateau, great significance for the industrial life of all Eastern Europe. The coal-fields of the Donetz Plateau, 23,000 km. in size, are the richest and most important coal region of the present Russian Empire. Thanks to these “black diamonds,” a forest of factory chimneys (sparsely sown as yet, to be sure) has sprung up within the most recent past in the black steppe, where the anthracite and pit-coal collieries furnish the desired nourishment. Besides this, the permian layers of the Donetz Plateau hold great deposits of rock-salt. Here, too, lie the only quicksilver mines of the Russian Empire in Europe. Rich copper deposits are being exploited here, besides which we must mention the occurrence of zinc, silver, lead, and even gold in this Donetz region, which has not yet been sufficiently explored by the mining prospector.

The Donetz Plateau forms the easternmost member of the Ukrainian plateau group, which constantly narrows toward the east. Outside of this, the group rises only at the southernmost spurs of the Central Russian Plateau above the 200 m. level. These regions of the Ukraine, however, we may safely discuss in our description of the Dnieper Plain, for the transition from this plain to the Central Russian elevation is so imperceptible and gradual, the plateau character so undecided, that even from the scientific morphological point of view, one can hardly find any difference between the plain landscape and the neighboring combined elevated surfaces.

[[Contents]]

The Ukrainian Plain Country

The Ukrainian plateau group, which passes thru the Ukraine in its entire length is hemmed in on both sides by [[54]]two plain regions. Without a break they accompany the extended plateau groups in the north and south, uniting finally on the left bank of the Don and the country below the Caucasus. The northern plain district accompanies the northern decline of the Ukrainian horst, concealing a tectonically disturbed substratum; the southern district accompanies the northern border of the Black Sea and parts the broken chain of plicate mountains from the plateau group of the Ukraine.

The northern plain district of the Ukraine joins directly on to the Polish lowlands, and, indirectly, to the North German lowland.

The first section of the northern plain district is called Pidlassye (Podlakhia, land on the Polish border). Its northern boundary consists of the southern limits of the White Russian Plateau; the western boundary of the flat elevations near Sidlez and Bilsk; on the south the plain borders on the spurs of the Rostoche; in the east the boundary is the Buh-Pripet divide, which is only 170 m. high. The surface of the Pidlassye is very even, only slightly undulating in places on the north and south borders. The river valleys are very broad and flat. Only the great forest (the well-known Biloveza forest lies here) and the water-courses bring variety into the monotonous country. The main stream of the Pidlassye, the Buh, as well as its tributaries have the character of genuine lowland rivers. They flow thru their over-great valleys in great turns, divide into many arms, and form innumerable old river beds. Besides these we find, in southern Pidlassye, a large number of lakes and many swamps and moors which mark the sites of former lakes.

The chalk and tertiary substratum appears only in very few places, the rest being covered everywhere by sand and loam, which include boulders and rubble of Finnic-Scandinavian origin. These are traces of the great (second) [[55]]glacial period of Northern Europe, which covered the entire region of the Pidlassye with glacial ice. The lakes are morain-lakes. The ice of the glacial period did not reach Pidlassye. At that time a broad primeval river valley formed here as an extension of the primeval Vistula river valley. In this valley the water from the melting glacier flowed off to the east toward the lowland of the Polissye.

The Polissye (woodland) is one of the most remarkable lands of Eastern Europe. Only a low (170 m.) and very flat divide, which is crossed without difficulty by the Dnieper-Buh ship canal, separates the Polissye from the Pidlassye. In the north the White Russian Plateau approaches, in the south the Volhynian, in the east the Polissye extends beyond the Dnieper to the spurs of the Central Russian Plateau. The region thus bounded forms an immense flat trough, in the vertical axis of which the Pripet River flows. The bottom of this trough is very flat and lies at a height of 120–150 m. Only in places do we find almost imperceptible rises of ground. The substratum of the Polissye is composed of chalk marl with numerous holes made by springs (vikno = window), while in the east oligocene formations also appear. But this substratum is seen very seldom, all the rest of the Polissye being covered with diluvial sands and great swamps. The sands take in all the elevated places and form wandering or wood-covered dunes. These sandy rises of ground, together with the elevated banks of some of the rivers, afford the only sites for human abodes. All the remaining land is marshy wood, genuine forest swamps, bog or moor. The Pripet with its tributaries, the Stokhod, Stir, Hornin, Ubort, Uz (on the right) and the Pina, Yassiolda, Sluch, and Ptich (on the left), comprises the water system of the Polissye. All these rivers flow very slowly and deposit the mud which they bring from the plateau regions surrounding the Polissye along their courses. By this means [[56]]they raise their beds and their banks more and more, so that all these Polissian rivers flow upon flat dams. At the time of high water the rivers overflow their banks and flood the entire lowland far and near. At the time of the melting of snows in the spring, or of the strong showers in the early summer, the entire Polissye is transformed into an immense lake, above whose surface only the flooded forests and the settled sandy elevations of ground are visible. The spring flood lasts from two to three months, the summer floods the same length of time, for the water flows off very slowly because of the slight decline. On the highways and railroads all traffic is blocked and certain places in the Polissye may be reached only by water. During the flood period the rivers have often sought new beds, and this explains the frequency of old river beds and river branches, which are peculiar to all the Polissian river courses. And, as reminders of the floods, innumerable pools and marsh lakes remain behind.

These periodic floods are the main cause of the continuance of the Polissian swamps. We can find two main types of marshes in the Polissye. In the west and north of the region, great peat moors, with pine woods, predominate; in the south and east treeless marsh meadows, overgrown with willow brush. These are called hala. Many fictions are told by the inhabitants of the Polissye about the swamps and small marsh lakes being bottomless. For a long time it was even believed that the swamps lay lower than the normal surface of the rivers. But exact measurements have proved these “fairy tales” to be false and have shown that the swamps of the Polissye are not deep and lie at a higher level than the rivers. Since 1873 the Russian government has been working to drain the swamps and reclaim them for civilization. Up to 1898, 6000 kilometers of canals are supposed to have been dug and 32,000 square kilometers of ground made usable.

The glacial period was of great importance for the [[57]]surface configuration of the Polissye. Apart from the traces of the main glacial period, which are met with frequently in southern Polissye, it was the third glacial period that was of marked significance. The water from the Baltic glacier flowed off thru the region of the present Polissye and formed a large lake with the Dnieper as its outlet. The deposits of this lake are to be found especially in the south of the Polissye basin. The lake was then gradually filled in, the northern and western tributaries bringing more sand, the southern ones mud. At the same time the Pripet River cut in more deeply, and was, therefore, constantly more able to carry the waters of the Polissye to the Dnieper River. Swamps have taken the place of the lake and have gradually covered the entire land. The many smaller lakes of the region (the largest of them are Vihonivske Ozero and Knias) are the only remains and proofs of the one-time great lake. Only at the time of high water does the Polissye recall the memory of former times.

Dreary is the Polissian landscape. The dark forest in the deep-bottomed swamps alternate with the open marsh-meadow covered with pools; with gliding flow the many-armed rivers traverse the gloomy country. On yellow-white sand-dunes stand a few log-houses amid wretched little fields and poor meadows, corduroy and brush roads stretching for miles connect small, very sparsely scattered human settlements.

The Polissye Plain also extends to the left bank of the Dnieper, and there imperceptibly passes over into a comparatively narrow lowland district which stretches along the main river of the Ukraine. This is the third member of the series of plains of the Ukraine—the Dnieper Plain. It extends toward the southeast as far as the region of the rapids (porohi) of the Dnieper and rises slowly toward the northeast, passing over into the Central [[58]]Russian Plateau. The transition takes place so imperceptibly that the difference in the nature of the country only becomes apparent at the furthest bounds of Ukrainian territory, which practically lie in the southern spurs of the Central Russian Plateau.

The Dnieper Plain is quite level only along the river itself. Every year a strip of the plain, in places 10 km. wide, is flooded by the Dnieper River, wherefore it is full of old river beds and swamps, on the Desna and near Cherkassy, where the lowland, too, enters upon the right Dnieper bank, and also of sand-dunes. Near Chernihiv and Uizin the landscape is quite Polissian and the name Polissye, too, is often used here to denote the region. Toward the southeast the Polissian character begins to gradually disappear. Black earth takes the place of the sandy soil, the forest mantle becomes constantly thinner, and the flat, undulating steppe-plain, with its innumerable barrows and plate-shaped depressions of ground, where, in springtime, small steppe lakes glisten in the sunlight, increases very rapidly.

The river valleys, along which the Dnieper Plain intrudes far into the Central Russian Plateau, are very wide valley slopes on the right, and flat slopes on the left side. Sand, swamps and forest terraces cover the flat valley bottoms, which are flooded every spring.

At the porohs of the Dnieper the country rises much higher than at Pereyaslav or Kreminchuk, where the Dnieper Plain rises barely 50 m. above sea-level. At the porohs the landscape on both sides is that of a low rock-plateau. The picturesque rocks of the Dnieper banks, the rapids and ledges of rock in the river bed, everywhere remind us that here the Ukrainian Horst is crossed by the main stream of the Ukraine. Not until we get down to the Zaporoze (land below the rapids) do we find the genuine lowland character again—in the Pontian Steppe-plain. [[59]]

The transition of the Dnieper Plain to the southern spurs of the Central Russian Plateau is marked only by the rising of the valley slopes of the tributaries of the Dnieper in this region. Beyond that, the surface of the high bog, lying between the rivers, remains as flat and level as on the Dnieper and below the 200 m. level. Moreover, the spurs of the Central Russian elevation nowhere within Ukrainian territory attain the level of 300 m. The spur between the Dnieper and the Desna barely reaches a height of 230–240 m.; near the high Desna bank, the spur between the Desna and the Sem barely 260 m. About the sources of the Sem, Psiol and Donetz, the country attains a summit height of 280 m.; between the upper Donetz and Don only 250–260 m. From these highest regions the country declines imperceptibly but steadily toward the southwest, south and southeast.

The general nature of the land in the region of the southern spur of the Central Russian Plateau is entirely analogous to that of the neighboring Dnieper Plain, except that the river valleys are more deeply cut. The right valley-side descends to the river in a steep slope, furrowed by water rifts. The broad, flat valley bottom is occupied by river branches and old river beds, marshes and marsh meadows, sand areas or dunes. The left bank rises very gently, and we at last come upon the level, or at most slightly undulating surface of the water-shed, between two rivers. It, in turn, declines suddenly to the neighboring river and the succession of land-forms begins anew. This monotony of landscape reminds one of the neighboring Great Russia. The only variety is afforded here by the details of landscape, which appear most numerous in this region of the Ukraine.

These are rain water-rifts (in Ukrainian balka, provallia, yaruha). In this, and often in other plateau and plain lands of the Ukraine, they become a terrible scourge. The [[60]]heavy mantle of black soil, loess and loam favors the formation of water-rifts as well as the loose chalk and old tertiary strata (marl, sand, clay). The strenuous cutting down of forest in the past century has given the final impulse to the formation of such water clefts. In the loose soil, no longer held together by the forests, the water-rifts grow and spread after every heavy rain with terrible speed, and may, in a few years, reduce a wealthy farmer to the beggar’s staff by transforming his most profitable black-soil fields into a maze of deep, dry ravines. Only a national re-stocking of the forests could bring the land relief. Especially in the neighborhood of the high precipitous banks of the rivers, the water-rifts work their mischief.

The glacial age had no particular significance for the surface configuration of the Dnieper Plain and the adjacent plateau spurs. Only in the north Chernihov country we find real traces of the glacier. The large peninsulas which the southern limit of the glacial boulders forms along the course of the Dnieper and the Don are by no means to be regarded as traces of two great glacial tongues. The sand and loam masses, with enclosed glacial boulders, which are found in the region of these peninsulas, are of fluvio-glacial origin, and were deposited by melted ice from the glacier on its way to the Black Sea. The northern limit of the black soil region is not in the least affected by these problematic glacial peninsulas.

After the glacial period, however, movements of the earth took place in the entire Ukrainian plateau group. It rose considerably, and the erosive action of the rivers began. At the point where the axis of the Ukrainian horst cuts the Dnieper, we find this rise of ground also in the Dnieper Plateau. The rapids of the Dnieper were formed at that time, and, up to the present, the giant river has not succeeded in leveling its falls.

That tectonic disturbances are not unknown to the [[61]]Dnieper Plain we learn from the occurrence of volcanic rock and displacement of the strata near Isachki, not far from the city of Lokhvitzia, and on Mount Pivikha, north of Kreminchuk. It seems that along the northeast border of the Ukrainian horst a greatly disturbed area is hidden beneath more recent flat-piled rock layers. Great disturbances of the magnetic force of the earth seem to indicate the same.

The Dnieper Plain forms the last member in the northern plain district of the Ukraine. The southern plain district which extends along the northern banks of the Black Sea, from the delta of the Danube into the Kuban region, has since ancient times borne the accepted name of the Pontian Steppe-plain. Its old Ukrainian name is simply nis (lowland) or dike pole (wild field). The steppe-land and the river district, to this day, bear the famous name of Zaporoze (land below the rapids).

The Pontian steppe-plain is bounded on the north by the spurs of the Bessarabian, Podolian, Dnieper and Donetz Plateaus. On the south, by the sea-shore and the country at the foot of the Yaila Mountains, in Crimea. Past the Danube deltas the steppe-plain merges into the exactly similar steppe-plain on the Kuban.

The surface of the steppe-plain is exceptionally flat, slightly undulating only at the northern border, where the transition to the southern spurs of the Ukrainian plateau group proceeds imperceptibly. Innumerable barrows (mohyla) are as characteristic of the landscape of the Pontian Steppe-plain as the flat plate-shaped depressions of the ground, with small temporary lakes, the swampy flat valleys and the small salt marshes with their peculiar vegetation.

The many balkas, which divide the steppe-plain into innumerable low plateaus, do not affect the grand uniformity of the steppe landscape very much. As in the neighboring [[62]]plateaus, they are cut in deep, but do not become visible to the traveler until he comes directly upon them. The pliocene steppe-lime which predominates in the entire steppe-plain, covers the sarmatian and Mediterranean strata, and reveals the crystalline substratum only in the west of the Dnieper in the neighborhood of the Dnieper Plateau, and forms rocky cornices on the slopes of the balkas. Lesser tectonic disturbances, in the shape of anticlinals and synclinals, have affected these youngest tertiary formations also. They are covered by a mantle of loess and black earth, which becomes constantly thinner toward the south. The typical chornozyom gives way, south of the parallel of Kherson, to the brown, also very fertile steppe-soil, which is accompanied in long stretches, however, by the saline earth. To the east of the Dnieper, at the southern spurs of the Donetz Plateau, the crystalline substratum also appears to a great extent, in banks of rock, in the midst of the steppe-plain.

Only along the large streams of the steppe country does the nature of the land change. Their valleys are broad and swampy, covered by the so-called plavni. Interminable thickets of sedge and seeds, marsh forest and meadows, together with innumerable river branches, old river beds, and small lakes, make up a beautiful, fresh, verdant country in the midst of the boundless steppe, whose vernal dress, resplendent with blossoms, turns yellow and blackish-brown in summer and fall, from the fierce glow of the sun. [[63]]

[[Contents]]

Streams and Rivers of the Ukraine

The Ukrainian rivers are genuinely typical of Eastern Europe. The great uniformity of the surface configuration of the Ukraine is responsible for the lack of that variety in its own river system which characterizes the waters of Western and Central Europe. But the great extent of the land does cause the Ukraine to have mountain, plateau and lowland streams, so that it does not attain the degree of uniformity in hydrographic conditions of Russia proper.

The Ukrainian river system concentrates in the Black Sea. From northwest, north and east, the rivers of the Ukraine tend toward its sea. Besides, the western boundary lines of the Ukraine lie on the Baltic slope. There, in Podlakhia, in the Kholmshchina, on the San River and in the Lemko country, the Ukrainian people has had its seats since the dawn of its history. In most recent times Ukrainian colonization has gained also parts of the Caspian slope on the Kuma and Terek Rivers. But the region drained by the Black Sea surpasses both the other regions so much in extent and in the size of its rivers, that the Baltic and Caspian region of the Ukraine dwindle in comparison. Nature has, therefore, turned the Ukrainian nation toward the south and southeast to the Black Sea. But, at the same time, she has not denied the Ukraine a convenient connection with the north and south of the globe. The main European river divide is, perhaps, nowhere so flat and so easy to cross as in Ukrainian territory. From the Dniester to the San (bifurcation of the Vishnia creek near Rudki), from the Pripet to the Buh and Niemen the passages are easy. Since ancient times portages have [[64]]existed here, and in modern times the Pripet has been connected with the Buh and the Niemen by means of canals (King’s Canal and Oginski Canal) which, however, are at present entirely antiquated and almost useless. Besides, the widely branched water system of the Dnieper outside the Ukraine affords easy passage to the Dvina (Beresina Canal), Volga and Neva, in White Russian territory. Over these waterways and the portages lying between them the old path of the Northmen led from Scandinavia to Constantinople. This most important aspect of the Ukrainian water system promises at some future time to bear rich fruit, if the recently-formed plan to build a waterway for navigation on a large scale, from the Baltic to the Black Sea, utilizing the course of the Dnieper, should become a reality.

The Baltic watercourses of the Ukraine flow into the Vistula. Several large Carpathian tributaries originate in Ukrainian territory. Here the rapid Poprad carries the melted snow of the Tatra to the Dunayetz. The source of the Visloka also lies in the Ukrainian Lemko country. The last and largest Carpathian tributary of the Vistula belongs, in three-fourths of its extent, to Ukrainian territory, namely, the navigable San. It receives from the Carpathians the Vislok on the left and the Vihor on the right. The other tributaries of the San on the left side, the Vishnia, Sklo, Lubachivka and Tanva, come from the sub-Carpathian country and the Rostoche Plateau.

All the Carpathian tributaries of the Vistula have only at their sources the character of mountain streams, with swift currents, in rocky river beds, lined by banks of water-worn material. Even in the mountains their valleys become wide, covered with banks of pebbles, sand and loam, and overgrown with willow-brush, and their falls insignificant. In the sub-Carpathian country the banks become low and sandy, the stream slow, and the water-level [[65]]is very unsteady, owing to the cutting down of forests in the country of the source. In spring, when the snow melts in the mountains, and at the time of the early summer rains, there are terrible floods; in dry summers the rivers dwindle to almost insignificant proportions.

From the Rostoche the Vepr, navigable from Krasnostav down, flows thru a broad, marshy valley, into the Vistula. The northern declivity of the Podolian Plateau sends its largest river, the Buh, navigable from Sokal on, down to the Vistula. This river is really a genuine lowland river. Its valley is wide and flat, the river winds with its muddy bed thru forest marshes, thickets of reeds and willow brush, now parting into a dozen branches, now flowing in a wide bed, past fresh, green meadows and dark forests. The same lowland character is a common quality of the left-hand tributaries of the Buh, the Poltva, Rata, Solokia, Krna and of the Luha on the right hand. The Mukhavetz, Lisna, Nurez and Narva, on the other hand, are typical woodland streams, which roll their great mass of water thru the forests of Podlakhia.

The Pontian Rivers of the Ukraine belong to the six great regions drained respectively by the Danube, Dniester, Boh, Don and Kuban.

Of the great region drained by the Danube, only the Carpathian country of the sources of the Theiss, Sereth, and Prut lie within Ukrainian boundaries. The Theiss is formed by the junction of two source-rivers near the Svidovez and the Chornohora, and collects all the rivers of the Ukrainian country belonging to Hungary—the Visheva and Isa on the left, the Torez, Talabor, Velika Rika, Bershava and Bodrochka, which consists of five source-rivers (the Latoritzia, Uz, Laboretz, Tepla and Ondava). All these rivers of the Hungarian-Ukrainian mountain country break their difficult way in deep, picturesque passes, thru forest-covered mountain chains. Innumerable [[66]]rafts carry the trunks of the fallen Carpathian giants into the treeless plains of Hungary. Here, too, the rivers suddenly lose their mountain character; their currents become sluggish, their waters turbid, their banks swampy.

Of the Sereth and its tributaries, the Sochava and Moldava, only the sources belong to Ukrainian national territory. On the other hand, a considerable part of the Prut country lies within it. The Prut River rises at the Hoverla, where it forms a beautiful waterfall along the crater walls. Then it flows in a picturesque defile toward the north, forms another waterfall at Yaremche, then immediately leaves the mountains, uniting in the sub-Carpathian hill-country with the roaring Cheremosh, which also rises in two source-rivers on the slopes of the Black Mountains and flows in a deeply-cut meandering valley thru the beautiful Hutzul country. In the sub-Carpathian country the Prut has a wide, flat valley, taken up in places by marsh meadows. The river winds down the wide valley in countless twists, forms side branches and old river beds, and reaches the Danube in the midst of liman-like lakes and bogs, not far from the swampy delta. Outside of the mountains, the Prut receives only insignificant tributaries of small volume. Between the Danube and the Dniester we see only a few miserable little steppe rivers, emptying into salty or bracken liman lakes (e.g., the Yalpukh and the Kunduk Rivers).

The important Dniester River attains a length of over 1300 km., and possesses the greatest variety of distinct sections of river of all the Ukrainian streams. It originates in the High Beskid, near the village of Vovche, as a very energetic, wild creek. In a defile it advances into the sub-Carpathian hill-country, where it has deposited great masses of rubble. The mountain stream changes rapidly into a lowland stream and forms great swamps in the Dniester Plain, which, in high-water time, are converted [[67]]into large river lakes. From the left bank, the Dniester here receives the muddy Vereshitza (from the Rostoche), which forms many ponds, from Western Podolia, the Hnila Lipa. All the remaining tributaries of this section of the Dnieper come from the Carpathians, on the left the Strviazh (Strivihor), on the right the Bistritza, the mighty meandering river Striy with the Opir, and the Svicha (with the Misunka). All these rivers are mountain streams, flow in beautiful defiles, and deposit great masses of rubble on the verge of the Carpathians. Beginning at the delta of the Svicha, the Dniester Plain becomes a wide, flat-bottomed valley, in which the river flows along in great bends and receives the Limnitzia and both the Bistritzas from the Carpathians. Near Nizniv the banks approach each other very closely and the Dniester enters a yar (cañon), not leaving its steep sides until near Tiraspol. The Podolian tributaries of the Dniester on the left side, the Zolota Lipa, Stripa, Sereth, Zbruch, Smotrich, Ushitza, Murakhva, Yahorlik, roll their turbid waters in similar cañons toward the Dniester. The Bessarabian tributaries, on the contrary, have wide, swampy valleys. All these plateau rivers are slight in volume of water, altho some of them attain considerable length. Only in the spring, when the snow-blanket melts, do their waters overflow the banks. In summer the water-level becomes very low, and the water of the early summer showers is stored up in the many ponds, which are found in large numbers, in the country about the sources of these rivers. All these plateau rivers are not even navigable for rafts; even the little fishers’ boat can hardly find its way along the muddy shoals.

In its cañons the Dniester River assumes all the characteristics of a plateau river. Its waters generally take up the entire bottom of the cañon, leaving very little space for the abodes of men. The incline of the river [[68]]is not uniform, but constitutes a series of slight steps. Sections with rapid currents alternate with quiet depths. The small brooks which come down the short lateral gorges of the Dniester cañons bring great masses of loose stones and rubble into the river bed, as a result of the reckless destruction of forests, and build constantly growing cones of rubble, which the river must remove slowly and laboriously. They also form dangerous shoals and hinder the development of navigation on the Dniester. The river also forms regular rapids, near Yampil, where a layer of granite stretches clear across the river. For this reason the Dniester, tho navigable along a stretch of almost 800 km., has not become an important waterway. The navigation of the Dniester, which becomes more active from Khotin on, is now on the wane. Eight hundred years ago sea vessels were still able to reach the old Ukrainian royal city of Halich.

The floods of the Dniester are famous. In the spring, when the snows melt in the Carpathians, the Dniester Plain is converted into a great river-lake. The Carpathian tributaries bring the main stream so much water, that it cannot easily flow off thru the narrow cañon, and so, floods the whole wide Dniester Valley for weeks. Then there is high water even in the cañon of the Dniester, but it has little scope.

Near Tiraspol, the Dniester Valley widens out again. Swampy plavni wilds extend on both sides of the river. In a beautiful, rapidly growing delta, the Dniester empties into its liman, which it is slowly filling in with its precipitates. Two narrow outlets (hirló) break thru the bar of the liman and connect it with the sea.

Between the Dniester and the Boh, not one river finally empties into the sea. Even the largest rivers of the region, the Little and Big Kuyalnik and the Tilihul end their courses in limans, which are entirely closed off by bars. [[69]]The valleys of these coastal rivers are narrow, becoming wider at last, when they are about to enter the limans. The current is always slow and the water often evaporates completely in the summer.

The Boh, falsely named the Southern Bug, is a real plateau river. It rises in the village of Kupil, near the source of the Sbruch, on the Austrian border, and flows as a typical Podolian mud-streamlet, in a flat valley, covered with ponds and swamps. But, beginning at Mezibiz, its bed becomes rocky, the valley slopes become high and keep approaching each other. The Boh Valley gradually becomes a cañon-like “yar,” altho it is at no point so deep as the Dniester Valley. The granite-gneiss formations of the Ukrainian horst appear here as picturesque shore rocks and slopes along the river and form innumerable rapids (as, for example, Constantinivka) in the river bed. Stony beds and narrow, rocky valleys are also found in the most important tributaries of the Boh—the Sob, Siniukha, Inhul on the left; the Kodima and Chichiclea on the right. All of them have little water, and in dry summers only a chain of ponds marks the valley road of the river. The main stream, too, has not much water, being unfit for navigation even in the time of the spring floods. Only the last 130 kilometers of its course, from Vosnesensk down, are navigable. At the entrance of the Inhul the Boh begins to widen considerably, the current becomes slow, and the depth at Mikolaiv sufficiently great to enable smaller sea vessels to reach its harbor. Slowly widening, the river gradually turns into the Buh liman, which has the winding outline of a river and unites with the great liman of the Dnieper. The entire length of the Boh is over 750 kilometers.

We now come to the main river of the Ukraine, the majestic Dnieper. To the Ukrainian people the Dnieper bears the same significance as the “Matushka Volga” to [[70]]the Russians, the Vistula to the Poles, and the Rhine to the Germans. The Dnieper is the sacred river of the Ukraine. Like a divinity it was honored by the old Polans, the founders of the ancient Ukrainian state of Kiev; Slavutitza was the name given it by the Ukrainians of the monarchy. It was esteemed as a father and provider by the brave Zaporog Cossacks, the champions of Ukrainian liberty. For many centuries the Dnieper has played an important part in the folk-lore and literature of the Ukraine, in traditions and fairy-stories and folk-tales and in thousands of folk-songs; since ancient times it has been sung by all Ukrainian poets, from the unknown bard of the epic of Ihor, to the greatest of all Ukrainian poets, Taras Shevchenko, and so on, down to the youngest generation of the poets of the Ukraine. To them all, the Dnieper is the symbol of the Ukraine, of its life, and of its past. Not without cause did Shevchenko ask to be buried on the mountain shore of the Dnieper, “that I may see the endless plains and the Dnieper and the crags of its banks and hear the rushing of the Rushing One.” For no one is able to repeat the impressions which fill the soul of every Ukrainian when he looks down from this beautiful observation point of Shevchenko’s grave upon the majestic river below. How many thoughts, then, arise about the glorious, and yet so unspeakably sad, past of the Ukraine, about its miserable present and the great future toward which the nation tends, amid great difficulties, as does the Dnieper toward the Black Sea over the porohs. And we do not wonder that the Dnieper has become the national sanctuary of the Ukraine. With this river are connected all the important events of the historical life of the Ukraine. The Dnieper was the father of the ancient Ukrainian empire of Kiev; by way of the Dnieper a higher culture made its way into the Ukraine; on the Dnieper the Ukrainian Cossack element developed, which, after centuries of [[71]]subjugation, gave the Ukrainians a new government. The Dnieper River has, since hoary antiquity, been the most important channel of intercourse between the North and the South of Eastern Europe; it has been the means of connecting the Ukraine with the sea and the cultural realm of Southern Europe. Its present importance, despite the low grade of culture in Eastern Europe, and despite Russian mismanagement, is great, and is growing rapidly. And if in the future the river is made accessible to sea-going vessels and becomes a road for large-scale navigation, its significance may become almost incalculable.

The Dnieper is the third largest river in Europe, after the Volga and the Danube. The length of its course is more than 2100 km. The region it drains includes 527,000 sq. km., not much less than the whole of France. Among the streams of the globe the Dnieper ranks thirty-second.

If the Dniester possesses some of the properties of a Central European river, namely, mountainous country at its source and many mountain tributaries; if the Boh is a genuine plateau river; the Dnieper, on the other hand, is the real type of a river in Eastern Europe. It rises in White Russia near the village of Clozove. A little swamp, which was formerly a small lake, situated at a height of 256 m., forms the source of the river. Because of this small height of the source, the Dnieper has, as, in fact, all the Eastern European rivers have, a very insignificant incline and an average speed of current of 0.4 m. per second. The source of the Dnieper lies near the sources of the Dvina and the Volga, as well as the source streams of the Neva.

Near its source the Dnieper is a small, muddy streamlet, which seeks its way southward in a flat valley, three miles wide, between swamps and moors. But quickly its volume increases, and, as near the source as Dorogobuz, the river becomes navigable for smaller vessels. Here it suddenly [[72]]turns to the west, both valley slopes, but especially the left one, become higher and steeper, the valley narrows down to ½ km. But after a short stretch it becomes wide and swampy again at Smolensk. The depth of the river is very irregular, the pools (plessa) attaining a depth of 5 meters, the rapids often less than ½ meter. From Smolensk to Orsha the Dnieper Valley again becomes hardly 1 kilometer wide, between high banks. On the left bank picturesque, rocky precipices appear. At Orsha the Dnieper turns to the south, retaining this direction as far as Kiev. Down to Shclov the Dnieper Valley remains narrow, with steep slopes, then it widens slowly but steadily. The depth of the river reaches 10 meters, but many shoals, great morain boulders and broken sandstone make navigation difficult. Below Mogilev the spurs of the White Russian and Central Russian plateaus withdraw from the Dnieper and show only on the left side. The river reaches the low plain of the Polissye and flows in majestic turns thru swamps and meadows which are dotted with old river beds. In this section of its course the Dnieper receives the Druch and the voluminous, navigable Beresina on the right, and the navigable Soz on the left. The Dnieper receives an especially great amount of water from the Beresina. River navigation is doubled below its entrance, mainly because of innumerable rafts which are traveling to the treeless South Ukraine and the Black Sea from the forests of White Russia.

From the mouth of the Soz numerous low islands appear in the bed of the Dnieper. The river divides into numerous branches. The entire trough lying between the Dnieper and the Pripet is a labyrinth of river branches, lakes, old river beds, swamps and fens. Thru the Pripet the volume of the Dnieper River increases twofold, and very seldom flows along in a single bed.

The tributaries on the right side, the Teterev and the [[73]]Irpen, bring the Dnieper the first remembrances of the Ukrainian plateau country, and soon its spurs appear on the right river bank. The Dnieper presses against this bank and forms the picturesque precipices above which glisten the gilded domes of the ancient churches of Kiev. Here the Dnieper receives the largest of its tributaries on the left, the navigable Desna. Thus the formation of the Dnieper River is completed, its source-rivers, the Pripet, Beresina, the upper Dnieper, the Desna and the Soz have united to build a majestic stream. Its normal average width is 600–850 meters near Kiev. During the spring floods, however, the width of the river exceeds 10 km.; from the high, right bank one can barely see the woods of the left. All the islands, sand-banks, swamps, meadows, river branches and old river beds disappear beneath an interminable mass of yellowish water, rolling slowly toward the south. Deep into the valleys of the tributary streams the high-water enters, and receding, leaves behind a layer of fertile river mud. Not without reason did Herodotus compare the Dnieper with the Nile.

The floods generally occur but once a year—in the spring, when the snows melt. In this respect the Dnieper differs from the Dniester and is similar to all the other rivers of Eastern Europe. In the early summer, at the time of the greatest precipitation in the Dnieper country, small floods occur only occasionally, because the rain-water is stored up in the many swamps and moors of the upper Dnieper country. The spring high-water originates in the great masses of snow, which remain lying all thru winter, melting and flowing off all at once in the spring. After an ice-drift lasting 5–12 days, the high-water comes and lasts a month and a half. It attains its highest level in the middle of April; at this time the water stands at 3.2 meters above normal at Mogilev, 2.2. meters at Kiev, 2.6 meters at Kreminchuk, 2 meters at Kherson, 0.3 meters [[74]]at the delta. The spring floods are at present becoming greater and more irregular, consequently more dangerous, too, than they have been previously. The progressive destruction of forests has contributed most to this condition.

From Kiev down, the Dnieper River turns in a flat curve to the southeast and retains this direction as far as Katerinoslav. The right bank remains steadily high, torn by gorges and crowned with rock formations, with numerous niches, which betray former places of contact of the river bends. The view, defended especially by Russian scholars, that the mountain bank of the Dnieper, like that of all other Eastern European rivers, originated thru the influence of the rotation of the earth (Baer’s Law), notably does not apply to the Dnieper, for the plain on the left very distinctly crosses over to the right shore at three places; at the mouth of the Stuhna below Kiev, between the mouth of the Ross and Cherkassi, and north of Chihirin. Recent movements of the crust of the earth, by elevating the Dnieper Plateau in huge sections, prepared the ground for the mountainous shores; the resulting steep declivities were attacked and transformed by the river current, aided by an effective simultaneous action of the winds.

The left bank of the river is very flat, taken up by swamps, lakes, old river beds and wooded fens. Great wildernesses of reeds cover the swampy banks of the numerous river arms. Great masses of sand brought by the tributaries on the left side are thrown up by the steppe winds and from dune landscapes in various places.

The tributaries of the Dnieper River in this section are of far less importance than the above mentioned northern ones. From the right side the river receives the plateau streams Stuhna, Ross and Tiasmin, from the left the Trubez, the Supo, the Sula with the Udai, the Psiol with the Khorol, and Holtva, Vorskla and Orel. All these rivers increase the volume of the main stream only to a slight [[75]]degree. The width of the river at the point where it flows along in a single bed is regularly 1 km. on the average; at the narrowest part, to be sure, only 150 meters. Where the river branches off into several forks, however, the complete width, even at the time of low-water, is more than 4 km., at high-water over 8 km. The depth of the river, too, is very changeable. The tributaries on the left side bring great masses of sand to the main river bed, forming great banks of sand, which slowly move downward and cause great changeability of the depth. Over such banks of sand the depth of the river is hardly 1½ meters, but attains a depth of 12 meters where the river flows in a narrow bed.

Between Kiev and Kreminchuk, the majestic character of the Dnieper River is most apparent. The slight incline here causes a current of only one-third the speed of the current of the Volga. With an impressive calm the waters of the Dnieper flow along; it seems as tho the mirror-like mass of water were motionless. But soon, above the mouth of the Psiol, the speed of the current is suddenly tripled, so that the steamboats must exert their entire force in the up-stream trip. The low left bank begins slowly to rise; the river valley, up to this point, wide almost beyond reach of the eye, becomes narrow, the river forks and islands gradually disappear, and at the mouth of the Samara both banks approach the stream with steep precipices. The direction of the river becomes southerly and the section begins where the Dnieper breaks thru the granite ledge of the Ukrainian horst, the famous section of its rapids.

Here the Dnieper assumes all the characteristics of a plateau river. The river valley becomes so narrow that at high-water the river spreads over the entire valley bottom. The settlements take refuge on the heights of the steep bank. The granite-gneiss sub-layer appears in [[76]]steep precipices and high picturesque rock formations on the valley slopes. We are confronted with the same cañon-like valley on the Dnieper, then, as on the Dniester in the Podolian Plateau. Yet there are certain fundamental differences. The river valley is at most 100 meters deep, and the granite slopes do not form compact valley sides such as we see in the yars of the Dniester. At every moment the steep decline is broken by numerous gorges, picturesque foothills; and jutting cliffs lend to the river landscape of the Dnieper Valley, at this point, a variety unknown in the yar of the Dniester.

The section of the Dnieper River from the mouth of the Samara to Veliki Luh, at the mouth of the Konca, forms a river country which is the only one of its kind in Eastern Europe. It is the section of the Dnieper rapids. The post-tertiary elevation of the Ukrainian horst, at this point, has forced the river to dig its bed into the hard granite and gneiss rocks. Despite great masses of water, the river has not succeeded in equalizing its incline. For this reason, we find in its bed innumerable rocky islands, ledges of rock, separate cliffs and great boulders. In a wild, roaring torrent, the current beats against these obstacles, creating deep pools and dangerous vortices. But not at all places was the river destined to saw thru the obstacles in its way. At many points solid ledges of rock lie right across the river. Its mass of water falls down over these granite steps in immense foam-wreathed billows and seethes about innumerable boulders, remains of already parted ledges. The dull roaring and rumbling can be heard, even by day, for several miles. These are the rapids of the Dnieper—the “porohi” and “zabori.”

The porohi are not real waterfalls or cataracts; the incline of the river in this section is 35 meters for a stretch of 75 km., and is, therefore, too slight for regular falls. The greatest incline attained within this stretch of river is [[77]]6%. Therefore, only the individual branches of water between boulders form small falls, while the main channel only shoots along down-stream in a long, foam-covered streak, over the inclined surface of the ledges. In summer, the depth above the rock ledges is barely 1½ meters, while in the spring even the highest reefs of the rapids disappear beneath the masses of the high-water.

Still, the rapids of the Dnieper are even now a great hindrance to navigation. Within the porohi section, steamboat navigation is altogether impossible, and the smaller rowboats or sailboats can risk it only during the spring floods, and then only the down-trip. Only the rafts can pass thru the porohi at low-water time, altho with great danger. The up-stream trip is almost impossible, even in the smallest vessel, altho, at one time, everyone who desired to join the Zaporog Cossacks was required to undertake this daring enterprise.

The Russian government has attempted, indeed, to make the rapids of the river navigable, and has caused a navigable canal to be formed at each fall, thru blasting of the rock ledges. But these canals have been planned in so impractical and even faulty a manner that the river pilots (lotzmani) still use the old “Cossack paths” to a great extent (the Cosachi khody) to bring river boats and rafts thru the porohi.

The width of the river in the rapids section remains unchanged—1 to 1¾ kilometers. Only at its exit from the porohi, at the so-called Wolf’s Throat (Vovche horlo), the river narrows down to 160 meters. The quiet sections between separate rapids are usually very wide and as much as 30 meters deep.

Of genuine rapids (porohi), according to the pilots, who are direct descendants of the Zaporog Cossacks, there are nine; of the larger sabori (ledges of rock which do not obstruct the entire width of the river), six. The first rapids [[78]]below Katerinoslav are the Kaidac rapids (Kaidazki porih), with four ledges of rock. Then follow the Yazeva Sebora, the Little Sursky porih, with two ledges, the dangerous Lokhanski porih with three ledges, and the Strilcha Sabora, with the great rocks of Strilcha skela and Kamin Bohatir. The next rapids, Svonez and the far-sounding Tiahinska Sabora, allow vessels easy passage, but after passing thru the Dnieper the pilot must exert all his strength. Even from the Svonez rapids on, one can hear the terrible roaring and rumbling of the largest of the porohi, the Did (grandfather) or Nenassitetz (insatiable). Masses of white foam cover it completely, the water shoots down over the twelve ledges of rock with the speed of an arrow. The vessel groans and creaks, but flies thru the porih in three minutes, if it can only escape the dangerous rock of Krutko or the terrible whirlpool of Peklo (the Hell). Or it may happen that the ship is dashed to pieces in the Voronova Sabora, which is full of dangerous reefs.

After the Did and the insignificant Kriva Sabora, comes the Vnuk (grandchild) or Vovnih, whose four ledges, covered with great billows and masses of foam, holds many hidden dangers for the sailor. But “after overcoming the Grandfather and the Grandchild, don’t go to sleep, for the Awakener will wake you”—meaning the next following Porih Budilo (Awakener) which also is dangerous for ships. We then come past the Tavolzanska Sabora, where the beautiful crag (Snieva skela) rises, to the next to the last porih, Lishni (the Dispensable), with two insignificant edges of rock, which offer but slight dangers. The last porih, however, which bears the name of Vilni (free) or Hadiuchi (serpent falls), is very dangerous for ships and rafts, for the channel winds in serpentine twists thru the six ledges, and the pilot must exercise all his skill in order to steer the ship entrusted to him safely thru the dangerous channel. After this follows the narrow [[79]](160 m.) “Wolf’s-Throat” (Vovche horlo), with three great rocks; the small Javlena Sabora, three dangerous “Robber Rocks” (Kameni Rosbiyniki), and two granite precipices, Stovli (Pillars), and we come into the Zaporog country (Zaporoze).

Here the Dnieper valley widens and numerous islands appear in the stream. The upper ones, for example, Khortizia and Tomakivka, which were once the site of the first Zaporog Sich, are high, rocky, and overgrown with forest. Further south the steep left-hand valley slope recedes far from the river and the so-called Veliki Luh begins. It is a labyrinth of flat forest and reed-covered alluvial islands, river branches, old river beds, lakes and swamps. Here were located the hunting and fishing grounds of the Zaporog Cossacks; here was their dwelling place, wonderfully fortified by nature and surrounded by an inaccessible wilderness of forests and waters, and the center of their military state; of the century-old oaks of the Veliki Luh, the Zaporogs built their ships, in order to pay their daring visits to the lord of Islam in his own capital. But the glorious days are past, the warlike life and activity has disappeared, and strange colonists, whom the Russian Government has sent here to settle, now occupy the ground on which the second Ukrainian state originated.

From the many-branched mouth of the Konka (also named Kinska voda) the Dnieper River turns toward the southwest, which direction it retains until it disembogues into the sea. From this point on, the river nowhere flows in a single bed; an enormous number of side arms branch off from the main arm or unite with it. The broad river valley, whose right bank continues to be high and rocky for a time, is taken up by the plavni formation and winds like a broad band of freshly growing verdure thru the steppe, which stretches out dry and golden-brown in the hot midsummer. [[80]]After receiving, as its last tributary, the steppe-river Inhuletz, it empties with nine arms into its liman, below Kherson. Of these arms only two are navigable for larger vessels, and the immense Dnieper liman is at most only 6 meters deep. The river brings down great masses of sand and mud, and fills up its liman so rapidly that strenuous dredging is necessary, in order to make it possible for small sea-vessels to reach the harbor of Kherson.

The Dnieper River brings the Black Sea, on the average, 2000 cu. m. of water per second. It is navigable, even for large river boats, along a stretch of 1900 km. The ice-cover lasts 100 days at Kiev; 80 days in the lower part of its course.

The tributaries of the Dnieper are very numerous and important; their total length is over 13,000 km. Of those on the right, the Pripet River is the most important. It gathers in all the waters of the Polissye and is the typical river of that district. Its length exceeds 650 km. Rising in the northern spurs of the Volhynian Plateau, very close to the course of the Buh, it immediately reaches the Polissian Plain and becomes a navigable river over 50 m. wide and about 6 m. deep. In the main axis of the Polissian basin the Pripet turns eastward and becomes about 100 m. wide. The incline of the river is very slight, the number of turns and river arms enormous. Between swampy woods and moors the river forms labyrinths of delicate, intricate waterways and stagnant pools. Near Mosir, where the river turns to the southeast, its width reaches 450 m., its depth 10 m. Of quite the same type are the tributaries of the Pripet: the Turia, Stokhod, Stir with the Ikva, the Horin with the Sluch, the Ubort and the Uz on the right; the Pina, Yassiolda, Sluch and Ptich on the left. All of them are navigable along great stretches. The remaining right-hand tributaries of the Dnieper, the Teterev and the Irpen, have the Polissian character [[81]]only near their mouth, otherwise they are purely plateau rivers with rocky beds. The Teterev is able to transport rafts of logs, while the other rivers of the Dnieper Plateau, as for example, the Ross (altho greater than the Teterev) and the Tiasmin, are entirely unfit for navigation, as a result of their rocky beds and their small volume in summer. The last large Dnieper tributary, the steppe-river Inhuletz, altho barely 100 km. shorter than the Pripet, is, for the same reasons, only capable of carrying logs in the last 150 km. of its much-twisted course.

Of the left-hand tributaries of the Dnieper only the northern ones possess a sufficient volume of water to be navigable. The Soz, which is 550 kilometers in length, becomes as wide as 150 meters, and is navigable for a stretch of nearly 360 kilometers. The Desna is the longest of all the Dnieper tributaries (1000 km.). It rises near Yelnia, on the Central Russian Plateau, and flows in a broad symmetrical valley, which it floods in places every spring to the extent of 10 kilometers. The normal width of the river at low-water is 160 meters; the depth is 6 meters. Despite many shallows and sand-banks, the Desna is capable of bearing rafts along a stretch of 250 kilometers, and is navigable for 700 kilometers even for the larger river boats. Of the Ukrainian tributaries of the Desna, the most important is the Sem, which is 650 km. long and navigable for 500 kilometers.

All the other left-hand tributaries of the Dnieper flow in broad valleys, with high right slopes and low left slopes, covered with stagnant waters, marshy meadows and areas of sand. But, altho they all look very imposing at the time of the spring floods, yet, neither the Sula with its high wooded banks, nor the Psiol with its 670 km. of length, neither the Vorscla flowing along between sandbanks and dunes, nor the Orel sliding slowly along with its twisted course—none of these have any significance for [[82]]navigation. Only the steppe-river Samara, flowing between granite banks, is capable of floating rafts along a short stretch. There was a time, however, in which all these rivers were navigable, even for ships of considerable size. Great old anchors and wreckage of ships, which are found in the beds and banks of these rivers, are sufficient proof of this fact. The cause of the present condition may be sought in the destruction of forest in the drainage country. The spring floods, increased from this cause, develop considerable destructive activity, filling up the river bed with masses of sand and mud, floating brushes and stumps of trees. The decreased volume of water in the dry season, due to the drying up of the swamps and springs, can not transport these deposits further, and the river becomes unfit for any sort of navigation.

The Don (Din) is the fourth in the series of rivers of Europe. It is over 1800 kilometers long, but the country it drains is smaller in area by 100,000 square kilometers than that of the Dnieper. Hardly one-fourth of the Don country belongs to the Ukraine, and even less of its course. For this reason it was long considered as a border stream of the Ukraine on the east, until the past century extended the boundaries of Ukrainian territory into the Kuban region and to the Caspian Sea.

The Don rises in Lake Ivan-Ozero, which has also an outlet to the Aka on the Central Russian elevation of ground. Its valley is at first deeply cut, its bed rocky. Then the valley widens and becomes symmetrical, the left bank becomes flat and swampy, covered in places by wide areas of sand. In the source region the direction of the river is south as far as Korotniak, then the river turns to the southeast, forms a sharp bend at the mouth of the Ilovla, approaching to within 60 km. of the Volga. Then the Don repeats on a small scale the direction of the course of the Dnieper, turns toward the southwest, and disembogues [[83]]in thirty arms, of which only three are navigable and only one accessible to sea-vessels, into the Sea of Azof. Its delta region is very rich in fish and is growing very rapidly. The general volume of the Don is twice as small as that of the Dnieper and is subject to many vacillations. During the spring floods the water-level reaches 6–7 m. above the normal and the river becomes as much as 10 km. wide. At the time of low-water, on the other hand, the river, despite its width (in the lower part of its course) of 200 to 400 m. and depths of 2–16 m., is full of sandbanks and shallows, so that navigation on the Don is but slightly developed, altho more than 1300 km. of its course may be considered fit for floating rafts of logs and 300 km. for ships. The freezing-time lasts on the average 100 days.

Of the left-hand tributaries of the Don, the Voronizh, Bitiuh, Khoper, Medveditza, and the Manich (famous, because of its bifurcation) are the most important. Of the right-hand tributaries only one, the Donetz, is important. Its entire course belongs to Ukrainian national territory. It is 1000 km. long, and, in its southerly and then south-easterly direction, entirely analogous to the Dnieper and the Don. The Donetz flows in a broad valley and washes beautiful white cliffs along the steep right bank, crowned with dark forests. The Donetz is capable of floating rafts along a stretch of over 300 km., and is navigable for 200 km. more.

Of the steppe-rivers which tend toward the Sea of Azof from the east, only the Yeia reaches its goal. All the rest end their courses in lagoons.

The last great river of the Ukraine is the Kuban, 800 km. long. It rises in the glaciers of the Elbrus and flows, a roaring mountain stream, in a narrow and deep rocky defile. A great number of the mountain streams of the northern Caucasus slope empty into the Kuban and [[84]]make it a stream of considerable volume. In the Stavropol hill country the Kuban turns in a widely-drawn curve toward the west. Its valley becomes broad and flat, covered with bogs, swampy forests and wildernesses of reeds. From the left side it receives a number of tributaries from the Caucasus, the most important being the Laba and the Bila. In the midst of immense plavni, lakes and limans, the Kuban forms its many-armed delta, which carries its waters partly to the Black Sea, partly to the Sea of Azof, and embraces the peninsula of Taman.

The Kuban always has a large volume, the floods coming in the early summer, when the snow blanket of the Caucasus melts. Navigation is greatly injured because of banks of sand and rubble, brush and tree-stumps, but is, nevertheless, possible for a distance of over 350 km. [[85]]

[[Contents]]

The Ukrainian Climate

The great uniformity of Eastern Europe, in respect to its morphology, we find repeated in its climatic conditions. But, to the same extent that the attentive investigator, upon close observation, finds several independent morphological individualities within the Eastern European low country, he will also observe important climatic differences in this great half-continent.

The Central European climatic zone stops at the western borders of the Ukraine. Similarly, the cool Eastern European continental climate, which rules over all of White and Great Russia, embraces only insignificant borderlands in the north of Ukrainian territory. The Ukrainian climate assumes an entirely independent position. It is more continental than that of Central Europe and differs from that of Great Russia in its greater mildness. The Ukraine shares with France the advantage that in its territory the direct transition from the temperate climate of Eastern Europe to the Mediterranean climate of Southern Europe takes place.

The thermal conditions of the Ukraine, despite its great size, are very uniform. The yearly averages fluctuate between +6° and +9° C. Ternopil, in Podolia, and Vovchansk, in the Kharkov country, have the same yearly temperature of +6.3°, Pinsk +6.7°, Kiev and Kharkiv +6.8°, Lviv (Lemberg) and Poltava +6.9°. The differences are confined within a space of 1°C. Chernivtzi (Czernowitz) in the Bukowina, Yelisavet in the Kherson region, and [[86]]Luhan in the Donetz region have an annual temperature of 7.6° or 7.7°, Katerinoslav on the Dnieper, Tahanroh on the Sea of Azof, and Stavropol in the sub-Caucasus country 8.3° or 8.2°. This great coincidence of yearly averages in so widely separated places is all the more surprising, since the mean temperature falls considerably directly behind the borders of the Ukraine. Thus, Kursk has only +5.2°, Voroniz +5.4°.

Not until we reach the southern borders of the Ukraine does the mean temperature rise considerably. Odessa and Kishiniv have +9.8°, Mikolaiv +9.7°, Simferopol +10.1°, Sevastopol +12.2°, Katerinodar +12.1°, Novorossiysk +12°, Yalta +13.4° mean annual temperature. The last-named place actually lies in the narrow belt of the Mediterranean climate, on the southern slope of the Yaila Mountains.

Comparing the annual averages of the Ukraine with those of different places in Western and Central Europe, the latter appear relatively much higher. London, situated in the same geographical latitude as Kursk has an annual temperature almost twice as high (+10.3°). London is on the average even a little warmer than Simferopol, which actually lies 650 km. nearer the equator. Brussels lies a little more north than Kiev, yet it is in the mean warmer than Odessa.

The cause of this unfavorable relation is the severe winter of the Ukraine. The mean temperature of January is +3.5° in London, +2° in Brussels, +1.2° in Frankfort a m., -1.2° in Prague, -3.3° in Cracow. In the Ukraine the January means are much lower. Lemberg has -4.6°, Kiev has -6.2°, Kharkiv -8.3°, Luhan -8°, Vovchansk -7.7°, Katerinoslav -7.4°, etc. To be sure this is not remarkable when compared with the January temperatures of even the south of Great Russia, where the winter suggests polar conditions, but the antithesis to the winter climate of Western and Central Europe is striking. Hammerfest, [[87]]the northernmost city of the earth, is one degree warmer than Kiev in January and even a little warmer than Lemberg.

On the other hand, the summer of the Ukraine is even warmer than that of Western and Central Europe. The July mean of London is +17.9° C., of Brussels 18°, Lemberg the same, but Kiev has as much as 19.2°, Kharkiv 20.9°. The differences in the summer temperatures are much smaller, however, than the differences in the winter temperatures—hence the comparatively low annual mean in the Ukraine.

These figures clearly show the continental character of the Ukrainian climate. The influences of the Atlantic Ocean, which still strongly dominate the climate of Central Europe, become slight in the Ukraine. Particularly, the southern part of the Ukraine is almost unaffected by the mitigating influence of a nearby ocean, and the necessary result is the low winter-temperatures. But the continental character of the Ukrainian climate is, nevertheless, not so strongly marked as that of the Russian or Siberian climate. Kamishin, Semipalatinsk, Blagovieshchensk, situated on the same degree of latitude as Kiev, have a January mean of -11.6°, 17.5° and -25.4°, and a July mean of +24.1°, +22.2° and +21.3°, respectively. The influences of the Black Sea, altho in general not great, are at least unmistakable in the coastal region of the Ukraine.

The difference between the mean of the coldest and that of the warmest month is slighter in the Ukraine than in Russia or Siberia, to be sure, but it is, at any rate, considerable. Only in the Mediterranean climate of Southern Crimea does the difference amount to as little as 20°. The rest of Crimea, the sub-Caucasian country and the northwestern part of the Ukraine as far as Kiev and Uman have a difference of 20°-25°, Lemberg, for example, 22.6°, Pinsk 24°, Chernivtzi 25.1°, Kiev 25.2°. [[88]]On the other hand, the southern and the entire eastern part of the Ukraine, especially east of the Dnieper, shows a considerable difference, from 25° to 30°, as for example, Kiev 25.4°, Odessa and Mikolaiv 26.3°, Poltava 27.3°, Kharkiv and Tahanroh over 29°, Luhan and Katerinoslav 30.4°.

The winter appears severe in the entire Ukraine, with the exception of Crimea and the sub-Caucasian country.

The January mean temperature of -4° to -8° then obtains in the entire wide territory. Lemberg has -4.3°, Tarnopol -5.5°, Chernivtzi -5.1°, Kiev -6.2°, Vovchansk -7.7°, Katerinoslav -7.4°, Mikolaiv -4.3°, Tahanroh -6.7°, Luhan -8°. Even the southern lands of the Ukraine have a low mean for January, for example, Odessa -3.7° (Kishiniv -3.5°), while Kamenetz owes its exceptionally high mean, -3.3°, to its sheltered location in a “yar.” The January isotherms run from northwest to southeast in Ukrainian territory, in a wide curve, which becomes increasingly flat toward the southeast. For this reason the cold in the Ukraine grows in intensity not in a northern but in a northeastern direction. The mean annual minimum almost everywhere exceeds -20° (Lemberg -19.2°, Chernivtzi -21.1°, Tarnopol -23.4°, Kiev -23.2°, Mikolaiv -21.4°, Luhan -28.4°). The absolute extremes attain very high values. The absolute minimum amounts to -30° in Mikolaiv and Odessa, -33.1° in Kiev, -34° in Ternopil, -35° in Lemberg and Czernowitz, -40.8° in Luhan.

The Ukrainian winter is far less variable than the Central European or even the Russian. Only in the northwestern borderlands of the Ukraine does a thaw, brought by the Atlantic winds, frequently appear. The duration of the frost on the Pontian shore is at most two months, in the Pontian steppe-plain and the southern spurs of the plateau groups three months, in all the rest of the Ukraine [[89]]three and a half. Only in the northeastern borderlands of the Ukraine, located on the spurs of the Central Russian elevation and the Donetz, does the frost period extend over four months.

In Southern Ukraine the winter is followed directly by a sunny spring, with dry east winds, which partly degenerate into sand-storms (sukhovi). Everywhere else in the Ukraine wet, sloppy weather follows the steps of the receding winter. Toward the northwest it continues longer and longer. The sloppy weather of spring consists of a constantly varying succession of frost, thaw, snowstorm, rain and sunshine, ending in the southern part of the Ukraine usually in the middle of April, in the northern and northwestern part at the end of April or even at the beginning of May. The actual spring following thereon is very short thruout the Ukraine and usually lasts three weeks, except in the northwest, where it continues thru the entire month of May. The mean April temperature is everywhere higher than the annual mean (Lemberg +7.8°, Tarnopol and Kiev +6.9°, Czernowitz and Odessa +8.6°, Luhan -8.1°). But the month of May is quite as warm as July in England. On the other hand, we find May frosts in the entire Ukraine as far as the shores of the Black Sea, altho they do not appear so destructive here as in Russia proper.

The Ukrainian summer is everywhere marked by considerable heat. Only in the northwest corner of the Ukraine (Rostoche, Pidlassye, Polissye, Volhynia) is the summer moderately warm (Lemberg +19.1°, Ternopil +18.7°, Pinsk +18°).

The July temperature of all the rest of the Ukraine is much higher than this. The July isotherm of +20°, like all the July isotherms of the Ukraine, runs in a northeast direction past the source of the Sbruch and the mouth of the Pripet, and the further we advance from this line towards the southeast, the hotter the summers we find. [[90]]On the lower Dniester and Dnieper the mean July temperature exceeds +23°. Following are a number of July means: Czernowitz +20.1°, Kiev +19.2°, Vovchansk +20.3°, Odessa +22.6°, Katerinoslav and Mikolaiv +23°, Luhan +22.4°, Tahanroh +22.8°. The strongest degrees of heat are +37° to +43°, and the mean annual maxima are +30.3° for Ternopil, +31.1° for Lemberg, +32.7° for Czernowitz, +32.1° for Kiev, +35.2° for Mikolaiv, +35.5° for Luhan. The duration of the heat period with temperatures of +20° and over is two months southeast of a line which runs near Kishiniv, Poltava and Kharkiv, one month southeast of the line of Mohiliv, Kaniv and Kursk. The total duration of the summer is only in the northwest of the Ukraine as short as three months; otherwise it is four, and on the Black Sea even four and a half.

The autumn of the Ukraine is regularly very beautiful and comparatively warm. The month of October has a mean of temperature higher than the annual (Lemberg +8.5°, Ternopil +7.7°, Czernowitz +9°, Kiev +7.5°, Vovchansk +7°, Katerinoslav +9.7°, Luhan +8.4°, Odessa +11°, Mikolaiv +9.7°, Tahanroh +9.1°). But even in October the warm sunny days are followed by night frosts. The moist autumnal weather which begins the transition to winter lasts as much as two months in the northwest; beyond that, one to one and a half months. The mean date of the earliest frost is October 19th for Kiev, October 11th for Luhan, October 28th for Micolaiv, and November 10th for Odessa.

A different position, climatically, is that of Crimea, the sub-Caucasian country, as well as the mountain islands of the Carpathians, the Yaila and the Caucasus. In the temperature conditions of Crimea and the sub-Caucasus country, the influence of their southerly location and the proximity of the sea is everywhere apparent. The mean temperature is everywhere higher than +10° (Simferopol [[91]]+10.1°, Sevastopol +12.2°, Katerinodar +12.1°). The winter is short and comparatively mild (January mean of Simferopol +0.8°, Sevastopol +1.8°, Katerinodar +2.1°, Stavropol -4.7°), but very variable. The degrees of frost are sometimes quite high (Sevastopol -16.9°, Stavropol -25.6° as absolute minima), but the frost period is short (one to two months). The spring begins in March with full force; in May follows the five-months’ summer. The July means are very high, especially in the sub-Caucasus country, the heat period lasting everywhere more than two months. (July mean of Simferopol +28°, Sevastopol 33.1°, Stavropol +20°, Katerinodar +25.3°). The long autumn also is very mild.

South of the Yaila and Caucasus Mountains, on the shore of the Black Sea, lies a narrow strip of land which actually shows Mediterranean climatic characteristics. The winter lasts less than a month and is very mild (January mean of Yalta +3.5°, altho the absolute minimum is -13°), and, as in Novorossiysk, cold, bora-like gusts of wind are common in times of heavy cold. After a long spring follows a six-months’ summer, which passes imperceptibly into a mild autumn.

The climate of the mountains of the Ukraine has been but little investigated. In the entire Ukrainian territory there is not a single meteorological observatory. The general characteristics of mountain climate, its greater uniformity, the smaller difference between the warmest and coldest months, the belated beginning of all the seasons, etc., may be found in all the mountains of the Ukraine.

Only the climate of the Ukrainian Carpathians is somewhat better known. The dreariest climate is that of the Beskyds and the Gorgani. The five-months’ winter and long periods of sloppy weather in the spring and in the fall encroach upon the short summer. The Chornohora chain, despite the greater height of its peaks, upon which [[92]]the snow in sheltered places remains lying thru the entire summer, has a much milder and pleasanter climate. The influence of the warm summer of the adjacent plain regions limits the duration of the sloppy weather in spring and autumn. For this reason, the mountain valleys have a short but very beautiful spring, a warm summer, and a wonderful mild autumn. The mountain pastures have in place of the summer only a three months’ spring.

In the Yaila Mountains, as a result of their small size and height, the characteristics of typical mountain climate are lacking, but in the Caucasus we find them in their highest development. The analogy to the Alps is perfect, but the influence of the continental steppe climate of the surrounding country is unmistakable, expressing itself in the position of the various climatic regions, in the height of the snow limit, in the development of the glacial covering, etc., very distinctly and very differently than in the Alps, which are surrounded by countries with a climate of a different kind.

We now come to the second group of climatic phenomena, pressure and wind conditions. The Ukraine may, in this respect, be divided into two great regions. The line of high pressure which separates these parts, called by Voiekoff the great axis of Europe, extends from the bend of the Volga, near Tsaritsin, over the porohi section of the Dnieper at Katerinoslav to Kishinev. North of this line, west winds prevail, bringing Atlantic air into Northern Ukraine. In the south, east winds prevail, bearing the influences of the Asiatic steppe climate. This wind divide is most distinct in winter. In the northern part of the Ukraine we find chiefly west and southwest winds, which mitigate the frosts and cause precipitations of rainfall; in the southern part dry, cold east winds prevail, increasing the cold. Sometimes the east wind increases to a snowstorm (metelitzia, fuga) which whirls up terrible masses of [[93]]snow, filling the air with snowflakes until absolutely nothing can be seen, and causes terrific destruction. Herds of a thousand head fall victim to its icy breath, even in the steppes of Crimea, and woe to the traveler who is caught in a snowstorm in the steppe.

In November and December, in Southern Ukraine, moist, warm south winds frequently come up from the Pontus. But the absolute balance is on the side of the freezing east winds, to which is to be ascribed the severe winter climate of Southern Ukraine. The northern half of the Ukraine as a rule, is seldom reached by the east winds, the northwestern corner very seldom. Their occasional appearance is accompanied by heavy frosts with fair weather.

In the spring, east and south winds blow, especially over Southern Ukraine. They often change to heavy sand-storms (sukhovi) very harmful to the crops, which carry clouds of sand, with which they form miniature dunes as high as 30 cm. The east and south winds, at such times, penetrate even into Northern Ukraine, altho with the exception of the northwest corner.

In the summer, on the other hand, the west, northwest, and southwest winds hold a decided balance over the east winds, even in Southern Ukraine. They bring moist Atlantic air and rain into the entire land and mitigate the heat. The occasional east winds increase the heat and bring periods of drought, but usually not until August, when they are rather frequent. In September all the winds are weak thruout the Ukraine, with high pressure. That is why the fall is so beautiful too. Then, in October and November, follows the gradual transition to the winter wind conditions.

The third group of atmospheric phenomena, humidity and precipitation, possesses the same great uniformity in Ukrainian territory as the other two elements of the climate. [[94]]The humidity of the air in the Ukraine is in general slight. It is greatest in the forest-covered partly swampy West and Northwest. Toward the southeast the humidity in the Ukraine constantly decreases. Fogs appear seldom and are only light, so that the antithesis to Western and Central Europe, as well as Russia, is striking. The light night and morning fogs which appear, especially in the latter part of summer and in the fall, only contribute to the beautification of the landscape, by flooding the depressions of land like a sea. Cloud-formation is much slighter in the Ukraine than in Western or Central Europe, or in Russia proper, the dreary Muscovite country. The greatest number of clouded days occurs in the western and northwestern part of the Ukraine; toward the southeast and east the number of such days dwindles continuously. The least amount of cloudy weather occurs in the month of August. In September and October the increase is very slight. November and December are much cloudier and January is most cloudy all over the Ukraine. After that the cloudy weather lessens considerably at first, then slowly, until August.

The atmospheric precipitations in the Ukraine are in general insignificant, except in the Carpathian and Caucasus regions. The Ukraine has less rainfall than Central or Western Europe. The Atlantic Ocean, the most important source of the precipitations in Europe, lies far distant, and the cyclonal systems on their way east drop their collected moisture upon Western and Central Europe. For the Ukraine, and particularly for the eastern part of it, there is, therefore, very little left. In this connection the Black Sea has only a local significance, and the evaporation of water from the rivers, lakes and swamps, from the plants and the ground, is hardly worth considering, except as it happens in the summer.

The great amounts of precipitation are to be found in [[95]]the mountains of the Ukraine, where rising currents of air help along the condensation of the water vapor. Even in the Low Beskid the precipitation exceeds 1000 mm. (Yasliska 1170 mm.), in the Gorgani and Chornohora we find in large areas, especially on the southern slope, a precipitation of over 1200 mm., in a few places 1400 mm. (Kobiletzka Polana 1377 mm., Bradula 1419 mm.). The amount of precipitation is still large in the entire Pidhirye, but at only a short distance it decreases considerably. Lemberg has only 735 mm. of rainfall, the southern part of the Rostoche as much as 900 mm. in places, since the western edges act like chains of mountains to the west winds. But Czernowitz, near as it is, has only 619 mm. and the Podolia on the Dniester still less. The Khotin lying in the yar of this river has only 300 mm., which best illustrates the significance of local conditions. At a greater distance from the curve of the Carpathians the amount of precipitation shows a slow but regular decrease toward the southeast. Only in the northern part of the Rostoche and the northwestern part of Podolia does the amount of precipitation attain 600 mm., while further toward the south and east a wide zone stretches out with only 500–600 mm. (Pinsk 581 mm., Kiev 534 mm., Uman 546 mm., Poltava 532 mm.). Another wide zone, which extends from the mouth of the Dniester to the bend of the Don, has a precipitation of between 400 and 500 mm. (Kharkiv 465 mm., Katerinoslav 475 mm., Kishinev 471 mm., Yelisavet 444 mm., Odessa 408 mm.). The next narrow zone of the Pontian and Crimean steppe has a precipitation of less than 400 mm. (Mikolaiv 360 mm., Sevastopol 386 mm., Luhan 379 mm.), a corner of Crimea on the peninsula of Tarkhankut has even barely more than 200 mm.

The Yaila Mountain Range is too small to have any marked influence on the increase in the amount of precipitation. Yalta has only 508 mm. precipitation. On the [[96]]other hand, the influence of the Caucasus is very great. The sub-Caucasus Kuban region, to be sure, has only 400–500 mm. precipitation, Stavropol 720 mm., Novorossysk 691 mm. However, the amount of precipitation on the southwestern side of the Caucasus Mountains increases uncommonly. At the borders of Ukrainian territory, Sochi has not less than 2071 mm.

From this account we see clearly enough that, in comparison with Central and Western Europe, the Ukraine is rather poor in rainfall, especially in the southeast. But the distribution of the precipitations among the seasons is so favorable that most of them fall at the time they are most needed, namely, in the early part of summer. The entire Ukraine lies within the area of the summer rains, only the narrow strip of the south coast of Crimea and the Caucasus are within the area of the winter rains.

The reason of the preponderance of the summer rains lies in the western and northwestern Atlantic winds, which, in that season, have easy access far into the southeastern part of the Ukraine. These winds bring so much moisture into the Ukraine that almost two-thirds of the annual rainfall belongs to May, June and July. The month with the greatest amount of precipitation for the entire Ukraine is June. Only the Polissye, Northwestern Volhynia and the western part of the Kiev territory show the heaviest precipitation in July, since, in these regions of forests and swamps, evaporation is heaviest at this time of greatest heat.