310 Dr. W. F. Hume — Notes on Russian Geology — 



The former presence of forests was naturally regarded as necessary 

 to account for the formation of such a soil, if all aqueous action 

 were rigidly excluded. Thus, Bogdanoff and Polimpsest considered 

 the Black Earth to be the humus resulting from prehistoric woods, 

 cut down by hordes of nomads. For the extensive character of such 

 forests they sought to find evidence in the works of Herodotus. 



In his work Melpomene, Book IV., Herodotus gives some very 

 concise descriptions of the nature of the country lying between the 

 Dnieper (Borysthenes) and Don (Tanais). He appears, indeed, to 

 have made this region an object of special research. For instance, 

 it is expressly stated that the Androphages (inhabiting Volhynia) 

 lived northward of a region of vast deserts (the great Loess-covered 

 plains east of the Dnieper). In another place it is stated that the 

 entire country occupied by the nomadic Scythians is without trees. 

 (This is evidently the disti-iot we are specially considering.) And 

 this is still more forcibly emphasized when considering the country 

 N. of the Azov Sea. The country of the Sauromates commences 

 at the extremity of the Palus Moeotis, and occupies the country that 

 lies to the north ; a fifteen days' journey is required to traverse it ; 

 one sees there neither wild nor fruit-hearing trees. Beyond this is the 

 country of the Budins, where trees are in abundance. 



It is also interesting to note that to the north of the country 

 between the Dnieper and Don, only marshes and land without 

 inhabitants were believed to exist. 



Far, therefore, from proving the existence of former forests, 

 Herodotus strongly argues in favour of the desert character of 

 these regions, and indeed further cites Scythian traditions which 

 fully confirm the view that this country was treeless ever since 

 the earliest historical records were written. 



It is necessary to emphasize these points, because some support 

 might be lent to the opposite view, if the remarkable statements 

 made by Mr. Floyer regarding the former fertility of many of the 

 Egyptian wadys be considered. 



The discussion in America has run to a large extent on absolutely 

 parallel lines, and Mr. J. W. Rodway (Geographical Journal, March, 

 1894) has shortly resumed the views propounded, and arrived at 

 a conclusion differing in no respect from the one now enunciated, 

 viz. the areas in question never were timbered. 



Mr. Miller Christy, in a paper read before the British Association, 

 held that the absence of the trees was due to prairie fires, in general 

 started by Indian tribes. But, as Mr. Eodway points out, these fires 

 only affect the stems and branches, leaving the roots of the trees 

 entirely untouched. That these splendid plains have not borne these 

 growths for many centuries past, is shown by the fact, long ago 

 observed by Murchison, that traces of root-fibres are altogether 

 absent. 



Prof. Krasnov also argues that woods do not form Tchernozem. 

 On the contrary, they form a subsoil in which the component parts 

 are of the size of nuts, of- an ashy-grey colour, and poorer in humus 

 than the Black Earth proper. In addition, this soil bears traces of 



