Doivn the Volga. 191 



At Astrachan we begin to be annoyed with mosquitoes and house flies, 

 which are rarely seen in the drier valley above. Here, also, fresh sediment- 

 ary deposits begin to attract attention as near the mouths of the Mississippi. 

 We also note that the bed of the river is being lifted up by the mud deposits, 

 and that in time of high water the whole plain to the eastward is flooded, 

 leaving successive deposits of sand and black earth sediment. We now be- 

 gin to fully realize the truth of the story we have read and been told, that 

 we have been sailing for days in a dry vallej', with scarcely an observable 

 trace of bayou, marsh, or wet spot outside the river banks — a valley teeming 

 with population and bus}' commerce, yet actually far below the level of the 

 Black sea or the ocean. 



Literally the bed of the Volga, below Saratov, is below the ocean level, 

 and it empties into a great depression in the earth known as the Caspian 

 sea, which at the bottom is from 100 to 200 feet below the level of the Atlan- 

 tic or Pacific, ayid so far as known this great sink-hole is without outlet. Into 

 this great depression run the waters of the Volga and its many tributaries, 

 draining an area equal to many states like Iowa, with seven other rivers, 

 which drain a still larger area, including a large portion of the south slopes 

 of the Caucasus range, where the annual rain-fall is excessive. 



With these facts before us we are ready to believe that the evaporation 

 from the 180,000 square miles of the Caspian can not equal the inflow from 

 the eight rivers and smaller inlets, and to fullj' believe the statement that 

 the water level of the Caspian has raised within a recent historic period 

 many feet. Alexander the Great passed his troops dry-shod over an arm of 

 the present sea, which now has a depth of water of over forty feet, and the 

 foundations of buildings erected by Alexander at Derbend are now fifty feet 

 below the water surface. 



In view of these facts, some of our scientists believe that the Volga in 

 time will again resume its ancient course into the Black sea in the present 

 valley of the Don, and the whole level plain east of the Volga, and as far 

 north as Simbirsk, will again be flooded, and deposit a coating of the black 

 sediment brought down by the river and its tributaries. But all this need 

 not disturb the peace of mind of the present czar, nor the plans of tourists 

 who may decide on a sail down one of the largest, busiest and most peculiar 

 rivers of the world, as the present rate of fiUing up of the great area below 

 ocean level will require at least 800 years. 



It may be of interest to add that the final filling up of the Caspian basin, 

 and the flijoding of the low steppes east of the Volga, will not, in the opinion 

 of experts, prove an unmixed evil. While millions of acres of the steppe 

 will be flooded, a still greater number of acres will be doubled, and even 

 quadrupled, in value by the change of climate wrought by increase of rain- 

 fall and atmospheric moisture. Indeed, the promise of added value to the 

 higher steppes of East Europe and Central Asia from this filling of the basin 

 below the Black sea is such that the project has been agitated for several 

 years of hastening the natural period of filling the basin by digging a canal, 



