270 CALCAREOUS MANURES— APPENDIX 



yet in these, nomadic people wander about with their herds and flocks, and 

 thus make them, if not their constant, yet their summer residence. In 

 many of them are seen villages. Some occupy a very large space : thus it 

 is calculated that the steppe between Samara and the town of Uralsk* 

 amounts in length to upwards of 700 versts ; but, as every twenty or tliirty 

 versts we come to a lake or river, the Ural Kozaks traverse them when they 

 fetch their meal from Samara. Probably hereafter several of these steppes, 

 at least in some places, will be cultivated, if they wish to raise forests upon 

 them. 



"In regard to the soil an extreme variety prevails, either being very fruit- 

 ful and proper for agriculture or for meadow-land, or indiscriminately for 

 both. Accordingly in the steppe about the Don, tlie Kozaks of those parts 

 employ themselves in agriculture, as well as in the breeding of cattle. 

 Some of them furnish excellent pasture by their fine herbage, as the south- 

 ern tract of the Isetskoi province, and the steppe of the middle horde of the 

 Kirghistzi.f Or the soil is unfruitful: whether it be the sand, the salt, or the 

 stone it contains that is the cause of it. Among these are to be reckoned 

 the sandy steppe on the Irtish near Omsk; in general we find about the 

 mountains up the Irtish pure arid steppes, and therefore no villages. Also 

 tiie Krasno-ufimskoi, between the rivers Belaia, Kama, and Tchussovaia, 

 towards the Ural-chain, is mostly sandy ; and that on the Argoun towards 

 the borders of China, is of a still worse soil, consisting of rocky particles 

 and flint. The whole of the steppe along the river Kushum, towards the 

 town of Uralsk, is described by Prof Pallas|: as dry, poor, saline, and unfit 

 for any kind of agriculture, for the breed of cattle, and even for permanent 

 inhabitants ; there is not even a solitary shrub to be seen, much less any 

 wood. In genera] saline spots are not unfrequent in the steppes ; ani^ here 

 and there we also meet with salt-lakes: howevej, such districts may invite 

 to camel-pasture."— pp. 81, 83. 



'■'■ Ihe s{e'()^es are frequently Jired either by the negligence of travellers, 

 or on purpose by the herdsmen, in order to forward the crops of grass ; or, 

 it may be, out of malice, as some years since the Kozaks of the Yaik did ; 

 when, having risen in rebellion, a small corps of Russian troops advancing 

 against them, they saw themselves all at once almost entirely surrounded by 

 the high grass on fire. Such a catastrophe often occasions great mischief; 

 the flames spread themselves far and wide, put the dwellings of the inhabi- 

 tants in imminent danger, consume the corn on the ground, and even seize 

 on the forests. Many prohibitions under severe penalties have accordingly 

 been issued against this practice, but they seldon have any effect.^ All the 

 steppes may be considered as a sort of common land."-- p. 84. 



" The steppe of the Don and the Volga comprises the whole space be- 

 tween the Don, the Volga, and the Kuban, and is a large, very arid steppe, 

 altogether destitute of wood and water; it has ^e\v inhabitants, and contains 



several salt-lakes and salt-plots." " Within the confines of this steppe 



lies what is called the Kuman steppe" " this, it is said, has all the ap- 

 pearance of a dried-up sea : it is a sandy, part clayey salt plain, without trees. 

 Many circumstances render it probable that it might really have been the 

 sea bottom, as the flat shores of the Caspian and Azof Seas, the shallowness 

 of their coasts, the low situation of the steppe, the saline lakes, and the sea 

 shells,'' (^c. — Rees' Cyclopcedia. 



Of the extensive Kamyk steppe, it is said, in the same work, that " the 

 soil consists of sand, mar/, and clay, often mixed %vith sea shells." 



• Formerly Yaik. 

 t Pallas, vol. ii. p. 75. 

 i Travels, vol. iii. p. 525. 

 § See Pallas, vol. ii. p. 378. 



