722 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



runs for a long way on the crest of the Carpathian Mountains. To l)e 

 sure, Galicia, for the moment, owes political allegiance to Austria- 

 Hungary; but the Ruthenians, who constitute the major part of her 

 population, are nowise distinguishable from the Russians, as we shall 

 soon see. This leaves merely the two extremes of the Baltic-Black 

 Sea frontier in question. The indefiniteness of the southern end of 

 this line, from the Carpathians down, is one cause of that Russian itch 

 for the control of the Bosporus which no number of international 

 conventions can assuage. The Danube could never form a real 

 boundary; a great river like that is rather a unifying factor in the life 

 of nations than otherwise. Hence the great j)roblems of the Balkan 

 Peninsula. From the Carpathians north to the Baltic Sea, likewise, 

 no geogra])hical line of demarcation can be traced with surety. ISTo 

 water shed, worthy of the name, between the Dnieper and Vistula 

 exists, although the one runs east and the other w^est not far from 

 the present boundary of Poland and Russia. The former coun- 

 try is possessed of no sharply defined area of characterization. The 

 State of Texas has as clear a topographical title to independent 

 political life. The partition of Poland was in a measure a direct 

 result of geographical circumstances. These have condemned this 

 unhappy country, despite the devoted patriotism of her people, to 

 a nondescript political existence in the future. By language the 

 Poles are affiliated with Russia, not Germany; but in religion they 

 are Occidental rather than Byzantine. Thus Poland stands to-day, 

 ])added with millions of politically inert Jews, as a buffer between 

 Russia and Teutonism. It is a case not unlike that of Alsace-Lorraine. 

 In both instances the absolute inflexibility of physical environment 

 as a factor in political life is exemplified. 



From the Carpathian Mountains, where, as we have said, Russia 

 naturally begins, a vast plain stretches away north and east to the 

 Arctic Ocean and to the confines of Asia ; an expanse of territory, in 

 Europe, eleven times as large as France.* I^or is it limited to Europe 

 alone. Precisely the same formation, save for a slight interruption 

 at the L^ral Mountains, extends on across Asia, clear to the Pacific 

 Ocean. European Russia, only one quarter the size of Siberia, is, how- 

 ever, the only part of immediate interest to us here. ISTowhere in all 

 its vast expanse is there an elevation worthy the name mountain. 

 Even the most rugged portion, the Valdiii Hills in southern !N'ov- 

 gorod, are barely one thousand feet high; they are more like a table- 

 land than a geological uplift. 



Whatever its local character, be it great peat swamps or barren 

 steppe, the impression of the country is ever the same. Monotony 



* Leroy-Beaulieu, 1881-89, gives a superb description of the country. Its simple 

 geology is shown by map in Petermann, xli, 1895, Xo. 6. 



