THE STEPPES. 



279 



Fie-. 13G. 



-Pool surrounded ry 

 A Village. 



C.of P. 



Rubanovka 



Even lakes bave completely evaporated, and saline incrustations become more and 



more extensive. In many places the people say that their wells have gradually run 



dry, or else become brackish, obliging them to 



abandon g-ardens and orchards which they were 



formerly able to irrigate abundantly. The river 



Tiligul, now lost in the liman of like name 



before reaching the coast, formerly turned the 



wheels of fifteen mills above Ananyev, of which 



one only existed in 1865, and that idle for a part 



of the year. Even in 182'3 this river is still 



represented on a military chart as entering the 



sea by a wide mouth, where is now an elevated 



isthmus crossed by the post road between Niko- 



layev and Odessa. This increasing saline character 



of the steppe seems mainly due to the destruction 



of the forests on ■ the uplands, augmenting the 



evaporation on the surface waters, and drying up 



the head-streams of the great rivers. As says the 



local proverb, " "When man comes the water goes." The same phenomenon 



m^^ 



EofG. 



54.°I0' 



« Wells. 

 1 Mile. 



470 



J 



Fig. 137. — Village in a Eavine keau Yekaterinoslav. 

 Scale 1 : 220,000. 



il^of P 



E.of G 



Wells. Farmsteads. Kurgms. 

 2 Miles. 



is observed in a far wider area than on the Russian steppes, as shown by the 

 old river beds of the Dobruja and Rumania, now almost dried up. 



