CATARACTS, AND INUNDATIONS. 21 



have now not only the opportunity of a safe passage over the shal- 

 lows, but also over several flat islands, which lie at a considerable 

 depth under water. The Volga receives several tributary streams, 

 especially the Occa and Cania, and abounds with that species of 

 whale called beluga, from ten to eighteen feet in length. 



The DON, the Tanais of the ancients, is called Tuna or Duna by 

 the Tartars, and has its source not far from Tula in the Iwano Os- 

 sero, or St. John's Lake, It first runs from north to south, and after 

 its conflux with the Sosna, directs its course from west to east, and 

 in several large windings again runs from north to south, but at, 

 length, dividing into three channels, tails into the sea of Asoph. The 

 waters of the Don are thick and chalky, consequently not a very 

 pleasant drink' This river is very shallow in summer, when it is 

 also full of sand-banks; it, however, affords plenty of large and 

 small fishes. In its course it approaches so near the Volga, that in 

 one place (latitude 49), the distance between them is but one hun- 

 dred and forty wersts, er about eighty English miles, which led 

 Peter the Great to form a design of joining these two rivers by 

 means of a canal, and some progress was made in the work, but he 

 did not live to complete it, and his successors have not thought fit 

 to resume the project. 



The DWINA is a very large river : the name signifies double, it 

 being formed by the conflux of the Sukona and the Yug. Tins river 

 divides itself into two branches or channels near Archangel, whence 

 it runs into the White Sea. 



The NIEPER, the ancient Borysthenes, rises from a morass in the 

 forest of Volcoiiski, about one hundred and twenty miles from Smo- 

 leusko, and makes several windings through Lithuania, Little Russia, 

 the country of the Zaporo Cossacks, and a tract inhabited by the 

 Nagaian Tartars; and after forming a marshy lake of sixty wersts in 

 length, and in many places two, four, or even ten in breadth, dis. 

 charges itself into the Black Sea. The banks of this river are on 



o 



both sides generally high, and the soil excellent ; but in summer the 

 water is not very wholesome. Tlie Nieper has no less than thirteen 

 water-falls within tlie space of sixty wersts ; yet in spring, during 

 the land-floods, empty vessels may be hauled over them. It abounds 

 in sturgeon, sterled, carp, pike, karausli, &c. There is but one 

 Bridge over this river, and that is a floating one at Kiow, one thou- 



C3 



