228 FORESTRY IN LITHUANIA. 



character. We find the difference thus indicated 

 by that writer : ' Instead of the grimy logs, you 

 have a predominant mixture of green and white ; 

 instead of the former blocks you have scattered cottages 

 in the midst of trees. The cabins are built of earth and 

 reeds ; the roofs thatched with straw, and the walls of the 

 homestead are washed with lime. A fence of mats and 

 thorns runs round the group. If every house appears to 

 be small, it stands in a common yard, and one of its own. 

 The village has no streets. Two, and only two, openings 

 appear in the outer fence ; one north, one south, and in 

 finding your way from one opening of the fence to another, 

 you pass through a mass of lanes between reeds and pines, 

 beset by savage dogs. Each new comer would seem to 

 have pitched his tent where he pleased, taking care to 

 cover his hut and yard by the common yard. 



'A village built without a plan, in which every house is 

 surrounded by a garden, covers an immense extent of 

 ground. Some of the Kozack villages are as widely 

 spread as towns. Of course there is a church, with its 

 glow of colour, and of poetic charm. 



'From Kiev, on the Dnieper, to Kalatch, on the Don, 

 you find the villages all of this type. The points of 

 difference [between these and those further to the north] 

 lie in the house and in the garden; and must spring from 

 difference of education, if not of race. The Great 

 Russians are of a timid, soft, and fluent type. They like 

 to huddle in a crowd, to club their means, to live under a 

 common roof, and stand or fall by the family tree. The 

 Little Russ [or inhabitants of Little Russia], are of a 

 quick, adventurous, and hardy type, who like to stand 

 apart, each for himself, with scope and range enough for 

 the play of all his powers. A Great Russian carries his 

 bride to his father's shed ; a Little Russian carries her to 

 a cabin of his own.' 



Conterminous with the government of Voronetz, on the 

 south-west, is the government of Kharkov, in which the 



