SANDS OF EASTERN EUROPE. 583 



fathoms."* No attempts have yet been made to subdue the 

 sands of Poland, but when peace and prosperity shall be restored 

 to that unhappy country, there is no reasonable doubt that the 

 measures, which have proved so successful on similar formations 

 in Germany and near Odessa, may be employed with advantage 

 in the FoHsh deserts.f 



* Geognosie, ii., p. 1173. 



f " Sixteen years ago," says an Odessa landholder, "I attempted to fix the 

 sand of the steppes, which covers the rocky ground to the depth of a foot, and 

 forms moving hillocks with every change of wind. I tried acacias and pines in 

 vain ; nothing would grow in such a soil. At length I planted the varnish 

 tree, or ailanthus, which succeeded completely in binding the sand." This 

 result encouraged the proprietor to extend his plantations over both dunes 

 and sand steppes, and in the course of sixteen years this rapidly growing tree 

 had formed real forests. Other landholders have imitated his example with 

 great advantage. — Rentsch, Ber Wdld, pp. 44, 45. 



