xcith Geognast'ical Obervations, S/v: 127 



VV T e also travelled from Taganrog to NicolaiefF, the steppes 

 which border on the Black Sea and the Sea of AzofF. These 

 steppes present the same character of uniformity and sterility. 

 In July, everything is burnt up and yellow by the heat of the 

 sun, whose rays meet with no obstacle ; — we find ourselves in 

 the middle of a desert ; notwithstanding the rapidity of our 

 course, (the roads made by nature are excellent, and we run 

 no risk in riding with a loose rein, for we meet with no inequa- 

 lity, nor a stone nor a ditch,) we scarcely saw within our view 

 more than a dozen huts of Cossacks, who have established 

 themselves in the vicinity of some muddy spring to furnish 

 post-horses for travellers. 



In order to form a correct idea of the nature of a steppe, we 

 must visit it in spring, when the plants which cover it are not 

 yet withered, or rather destroyed by the heat of summer. I 

 had occasion in the spring of 1828 to see the steppes which sur- 

 round Serguiewsk, in the north of the government of Oren- 

 bourg, and I shall here describe it as a substitute for that of 

 the steppes of the Black Sea, for which I was unable to collect 

 the necessary materials, because we visited it when the season 

 was too far advanced. 



Serguiewsk is celebrated in eastern Russia on account of its 

 sulphureous springs, which attract every year crowds of inva- 

 lids. This establishment, if we may give this name to thirtv 

 cottages neatly built, and inhabited only in the fine season, 

 is situated at the confluence of the Sourgout and the Soka, 

 ] £° nearly to the east of Kasan, and in lat. 54>°. It is at the 

 foot of a hill composed of calcareous rock mixed with gypsum, 

 that the mineral springs rise, containing sulphuretted hydro- 

 gen and carbonic acid. When we are on the summit of this hill, 

 we see the land rise insensibly, and terminate by forming an im- 

 mense plateau, where the eye loses itself in the horizon without 

 meeting with any elevation. Such a plateau presents the cha- 

 racter of a true steppe. 



The physical character of the steppes consists in great dry- 

 ness, and in very considerable variations in the temperature of 

 the air. Their dryness is easily explained by their relative 

 elevation and by their uniformity of level : It would appear 

 that a certain inequality in the ground is an indispensable con- 



