THE UKRAINE OR LITTLE RUSSIA. 233 



length of steppe, a broad and navigable stream. She is 

 the port and capital of the Ukraine, and the Malo- 

 Russians, whether settled on the Don, the Ural, or the 

 Dnieper, look to her for orders of the day. She touches 

 Poland with her right hand, Russia with her left; she 

 flanks Galicia and Moldavia, and keeps her front towards 

 the Bulgarians, the Montenegrins, and the Serbs. In her 

 races and religon she is much in little ; an epitome of all 

 the Sclavonic tribes. One-third of her population is 

 Muscovite, one-third Russian, and one-third Polack ; 

 while in faith she is Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and 

 United Greek. If any city in Europe offers herself to 

 Pansclavonic dreamers as their natural capital, it is Kiev.' 



In M. Polytaiefs account of forests on the Dnieper, 

 embodied in a preceding chapter, is given [ante pp. 

 187-190] information in regard to the forests of the 

 government. 



One of my correspondents, writing to me some years 

 since, stated that shortly before he had had a conversation 

 with a German land steward, from the neighbourhood of 

 Kiev, who had the charge of a number of estates in that 

 locality, and that in reference to the injury and loss to a 

 country resulting from the clearing away of forests, he 

 said the climate in that district had changed much for 

 the worse, and that he attributed the recurring famines 

 from which the people suffered, and the bad harvests of 

 which they complained, in a great measure to aridity of 

 soil and climate, consequent on the extensive cutting 

 down of the woods. Of the Russian landholders, he said 

 they were so improvident, and so reckless of the morrow, 

 that it was difficult to induce them to plant trees which will 

 not attain their full growth till some 170 years hence. 

 And he alleged that there was no hope of the evil being 

 counteracted, excepting in so far as necessary measures 

 might be undertaken and carried out by the government. 



Pinkerton epitomising a journey made by him from 



