BOOK I.

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

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 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

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 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. 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 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 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 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.

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 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.

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 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 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 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.

THE BLACK SEA AND ITS COASTS

Altho for many centuries separated from the Pontus by the nomad-haunted

steppe-border, the Ukrainian 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 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

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 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

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, 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.

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.

GENERAL SURVEY OF THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF UKRAINE

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 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 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 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

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 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, 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 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

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 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, 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.

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; 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 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, 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.

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 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 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 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 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 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.

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 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 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 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 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. 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.

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, 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

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 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 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.

THE UKRAINIAN PLAIN COUNTRY

The Ukrainian plateau group, which passes thru the Ukraine in its

entire length is hemmed in on both sides by 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) 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 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 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 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.