turbed by geological causes, that tbere are no means by wbicb 

 the water which falls at these seasons can be accumulated and 

 stored up in subterranean reservoirs or fissures (the exi- 

 stence of springs depending on the inclination of strata and 

 dislocation of beds). The water is thus simply absorbed of 

 the soil and when the warm season comes is gradually evapo- 

 rated. Hence arises of the extreme heat and cold which 

 characterise the district in summer and winter. No plant 

 which cannot live like bulbs under ground can survive these 

 extremes of temperature. All leaves and branches and 

 stems are every year cut down. Consequently trees cannot be 

 expected to grow. 



There are some countries so situated in relation to neigh- 

 houring mountains that it may be doubtful whether rain could 

 ever be attracted to them, as in the dry regions of Thibet, but 

 there is no such physical disability in the South of Russia. 

 With such large masses of water as the Black sea and the Cas- 

 pian in its immediate vicinity and no great mountains interve- 

 ning, there is no reason why the regions which are now a waste 

 for some months in the year should not be a garden; were 

 the ground even partially clothed with timber the whole would 

 be changed. There is no reservoir of moisture equal to a 

 forest. It is a sponge which soaks up an enormous quantity 

 of water to render it back in perennial springs and streams. 

 Moreover forests not only receive rain and retain it when it 

 falls, but they attract it. I read that already a few trees plan- 

 ted by the engineers employed in the excavation and construc- 

 tion of the, Suez Canal near their temporary residences, have 

 had the effect of attracting clouds and that the rare event of 

 rain falling in the land of Egypt has already taken place in 

 their vicinity. To do the same thing in the South of Russia is 

 obviously (as the very question proposed implies) the true means 

 of utilizing, fertilizing and rendering productive the vast step- 

 pes in question, and it must be done in the same way. The 



