GALICIA AND BUKOVINA. 



115 



A few level tracts lie at the northern foot of the Beskids and Carpathians, 

 such as the swampy plain upon which the waters of the Dniestr first collect, 

 and that at the confluence of the San with l^e Vistula ; but Galicia as a whole 

 is an undulating table-land, having an average elevation of 820 feet. It forms the 

 watershed between the Baltic and the Black Sea. Some of the rivers flow north 

 to the Vistula, the " White Hiver " of the ancient Slavs ; others flow east to the 

 Dniepr ; others again south-east to the Pruth and the Sereth. To the north of 

 the valley of the Dniepr the land gradually rises into a table-land of tertiary 



Fig. 71. — The Cahpathians. 



Scale 1 : 6.500,000. 



20° E.ol'U 



/OaO lo 32W 



Altitude in Feet 



2:10 to 6.560 Over liôttu feet 

 100 Miles. 



formation. The rivers which intersect this plateau have scooped themselves out 

 deep valleys, the bottoms of which are covered with fields and meadows, whilst 

 forests clothe the steep heights which bound them. Some of these forests retain 

 all their pristine beaut}^ and nowhere else in Europe do pines grow to such a 

 height. In the Forest of Pustelnik, near Brody, forty trees exceeding 160 feet in 

 height have been counted to the acre. 



Galicia has a moister climate than might be supposed from its position in the 

 centre of Europe ; for the rain-laden winds, which blow from the Atlantic and the 



