RUSSIA 



33 



bears traces of a great lake which was filled up 

 during the same epoch. 



The Urals, which separate the lowlands of Euro- 

 pean Russia from those of Siberia, are not the narrow 

 chain of mountains running north and south which 

 they appear to be on many maps. In the south 

 they consist of a series of parallel ridges running 

 south-west to north-east, their chief summits 

 reaching 4680 feet in Iremel, and 3260 in TaganaL 

 Farther north, up to the latitude of 61", they must 

 be considered as a continuation of the central 

 plateau, bordered by several low ridges (north- 

 west to south-east ) which become more distinctly 

 apparent between the Denejkin-kamen (4950 feet) 

 and the Toll-poss (5115 feet). They connect with 

 a ridge that runs north-east into the Yalmal penin- 

 sula. And finally, in the extreme north, a low 

 ridge, the Pai-kho, crosses over into the island of 

 Vaigatch and the southern part of Novaya Zemlya. 

 Thus the (."nils exhibit the same great lines of 

 upheaval in a south-western and a north-eastern 

 direction which are characteristic features in the 

 orographical structure of the great continent of 

 Europe and Asia. 



Rivers. The chief rivers of Russia take their 

 origins along the north-western border of the 

 plateau, and some of them flow, broadly speaking, 

 north-westwards, while the others, though describ- 

 ing great curves over the surface of the plateau, 

 take a general direction towards the south-east. 

 The Niemen, the Dwina, the Lovat (continued by 

 the Volkhoff and the Neva), and the two chief 

 streams that reach the White Sea, the Onega and 

 the North Dwina, are in the first case ; while the 

 Dnieper, the Don, and the Volga belong to the 

 second category. The Dniester and the Pruth on 

 the Roumanian frontier are the only rivers of 

 Russia that rise on foreign territory ; tbe Vistula 

 has its mouth in Prussia. The tributaries of dis- 

 tant seas thus rising amidst the same marshes, 

 on the same level of the plateau, and flowing in 

 opposite directions, boats that have been brought 

 up one river can easily be carried across a flat and 

 marshy water-parting (volok) into the basin of 

 another river and be floated towards another sea. 

 The advantages that can be derived from such a 

 disposition of the rivers are evident at a glance. 

 At an early epoch of history it favoured the pro- 

 gress of the Russians from their cradle in Novgorod 

 inn! Kieff towards the east; and later on it 

 facilitated intercourse l>etween distant parts of the 

 territory upon which they had settled, and so main- 

 tained the unity of the separate parts. The whole 

 making of Russia was closely dependent upon the 

 niii-i's of its rivers. At the present time vast 

 ijimntities of corn, timber, and other heavy or 

 bulky goods are snipped up and down the rivers 

 the total length of the navigable river-net reach- 

 ing 33,500 miles. Several of them have been im- 

 proved for navigation and connected by canals 

 (total length, 4.">3 miles), and many more could 

 lie, and certainly will be, improved. By means 

 of three lines of canals and canalised rivers, which 

 mieet the upper tributaries of the Volga with the 

 streams that now into lakes Onega and Ladoga, 

 the real mouth of the chief artery of Russia, the 

 Volga, has lieen transferred from the Caspian to 

 tin- litilf of Finland St Petersburg leing the chief 

 ]H>rt of the Volga basin. The upper Volga and 

 the upper Kama are also connected by canals with 

 the North Dwina, and the Dnieper with the Diina, 

 tin- Nieman, and the Vistula. Yet navigable rivers 

 ;u" iiiieiMially distributed over the territory; and the 

 rivers of Russia, though exceeding in length those of 

 western Europe, discharge a comparatively smaller 

 volume of water. The rainfall all over Russia is 

 small, and as part of it falls in the shape of snow, 

 which is rapidly thawed in the spring, the rivers 

 AI Q 



are flooded at that season and in early summer, 

 and they grow shallow by the autumn. It has 

 been estimated that one-third of the total volume 

 of water discharged during the whole year by the 

 rivers is carried during the spring and early summer 

 floods. The amount of water discharged by the 

 rivers also varies very much from year to year 

 a river which is navigable one year being often 

 reduced next year to a small streamlet. During 

 the winter navigation of course ceases. 



Climate. All over European Russia, with the 

 exception of the Baltic Provinces, the south of the 

 Crimea, and a narrow strip of land on the Black 

 Sea, the climate is decidedly continental. A very 

 cold winter, followed by a spring which sets in 

 rapidly, and has therefore a charm hardly known 

 to western Europe; a hot summer, the duration 

 of which varies with the latitude ; an autumn that 

 is cooler than the corresponding months of advanced 

 spring; early frosts; and a small rainfall, chiefly 

 during the summer and the autumn such are the 

 characteristics of the climate of Russia. The winter 

 is cold everywhere. All over Russia the average 

 temperature of January is below the freezing-point, 

 and it only varies between 22 F. in the west and 

 5 to T in the east. To find in Russia a winter as 

 mild as at Konigsberg ( 28 being the average of the 

 three winter months) it is necessary to go as far 

 south as Odessa. As for the southern Urals, they 

 have a winter as cold as it is at Archangel. Even 

 in south-west Russia the average temperature of 

 March is a couple of degrees below the freezing- 

 point, while in the south-east it falls as low as 16 

 and 20. All the rivers are frozen over in the first 

 part of December, and they remain under ice for an 

 average of from 100 days in the south to 150, and 

 even 167, days in the north. At Astrakhan ice 

 remains on the Volga for 90 days every year, while 

 on the Vistula at Warsaw it lasts only 77 days. 

 On the other hand, in summer the temperature is 

 so high all over Russia that it is only beyond the 

 60th degree of latitude that the average tempera- 

 ture of July is less than 62. In middle Russia it 

 rises to between 64 and 70, and it reaches 78 at 

 Astrakhan. The yearly temperature averages only 

 54 in the south and 32 in the north. The annual 

 rainfall is very low as a rule. It averages from 14 

 incites in the east to 22 inches and occasionally 28 

 inches in the west. The moderating influence of 

 the western winds is felt to some- extent all over 

 the country. But their tempering influence de- 

 creases very rapidly as they make their way across 

 the cold, dry plains. The strength of the wind, 

 especially in winter, is greater, as a rule, than 

 in western Europe ; by the end of winter blizzards 

 often bury the railways under snow, and are very 

 destructive to cattle. 



Flora and Fauna. With regard to its flora 

 Russia may be subdivided into four regions: (a) 

 The tundras of the Arctic littoral, which are devoid 

 of tree vegetation. They are chiefly covered with 

 mosses, lichens, and shrubs the drawf birch, the 

 dwarf willow, and so forth, with the addition of 

 a few herbaceous plants in the dryer and more 

 sheltered places, wherever sufficient humus has 

 accumulated ; the whole flora of the tundras does 

 not embrace more than 280 flowering plants. (6) 

 The forest-region, which covers the whole of 

 northern and middle Russia, from the tundras to 

 the Steppes, and must be subdivided into two parts, 

 the forest-region proper and the intermediate region 

 of prairies dotted with forests. The forest-region 

 has again two distinct parts that of the coniferous 

 forests, which cover nearly the whole of northern 

 Russia beyond the upper and middle Volga, and 

 the oak region. The forests of the latter class con- 

 sist of various deciduous trees (birch, aspen, oak, 

 &c., as well as the ash and the hornbeam farther 



