FORESTS ON THE DNIEPER. 187 



Two Principal Groups of Forests in the Government of 

 Kiev, and their bearing upon the Wood Trade. 



1 The crown forests of the government of Kiev are 

 divided into two groups in respect to the wood trade, and 

 even in wood growth, viz., the northern and the 

 southern. 



'The northern group of forests in the government of 

 Kiev consists of forest estates of the districts of Kiev, 

 Radomisl, and Vassilkov, and forms, in respect to the wood 

 trade, one whole with the forests of three Oster and one 

 Tchernigov forest districts in the government of Tchernigov, 

 the Pereiaslav forestry in the government of Poltava, and the 

 southern part of the Retchiltza district in the government 

 of Minsk. All this ma s of forests is so disposed round 

 Kiev that it can be considered as one estate, and not as 

 separate estates in different governments. Almost in the 

 middle of this mass of forests the rivers Pripet and Dwina 

 fall into the Dnieper. The junction of these three impor- 

 tant floating ways has a great influence in respect to the 

 wood trade on these forests, because the Pripet, and so like- 

 wise the Dnieper and Dwina, before their junction cut 

 through a great extent of forests. Many wood dealers on 

 a small scale, collecting forest materials in places distant 

 from one another, have no idea of the whole mass of 

 wood prepared for floating down the Dnieper. With the 

 opening of the navigation about Kiev the wood dealers 

 from the rivers Pripet, Dwina, and the upper part of the 

 Dnieper, come for the first time into communication 

 between themselves, and here only learn for themselves the 

 real state of the wood markets with regard to the quantity 

 of prepared materials. The fluctuation of prices continues 

 until the last rafts go. Many small wood dealers take the 

 wood only to Kiev ; here the forest materials pass into 

 other hands, and go to Ekatherinoslav, and very rarely to 

 Kherson, because the great part of the Kherson rafts have 

 their destination from the starting point, in order not to 

 lose time in Kiev, and not to let slip through this the 



