THE VOLGA DELTA. 



^67 



194. 



-Steep Banks of the Middle Volga. 

 Scale 1 : 7,000,000. 



narrow peninsula projecting from the western plateau. Here is the most 

 picturesque scener}' on the Volga, which is now skirted by steep wooded clifi's, 

 terminating in pyramids and sharp rocky peaks. Some of the more inaccessible 

 summits are surmounted by the so-called "Stenka" kurgans, raised in memory of 

 Razin, Chief of the Cossacks and revolted peasantry, who had established them- 

 selves in this natural stronghold 

 of the Yolga. The hills often 

 rise more than 300 feet above 

 the stream, the Beliy Klûch, 

 south-west of Sîzran, attaining 

 an absolute elevation of 1,155 

 feet, or 1,120 feet above the 

 mean le^el of the Volga. 



The Volga Delta. 



The region of the delta really 

 begins at the Tzaritzîn bend, 

 some 300 miles from the Caspian, 

 for tho stream here branches into 

 countless channels between the 

 beds of the Volga and the 

 Akhtuba, known near the coast 

 as the Bereket. Still the delta, 

 properly so called, is formed only 

 about 30 miles above Astrakhan, 

 by the forking of the Buzau 

 branch from the main bed. Near 

 Astrakhan the Balda and KCitûm, 

 and, lower down, the Tzarova, 

 Tzagan, Birûl, and other arms, 

 break away, and in the vast allu- 

 vial peninsula projecting into the 

 Caspian, and which is at least 

 110 miles round, there are al- 

 together about two hundred 

 mouths, most of them, however, 

 shifting streams choked with mud. 

 The chronicler Nestor speaks of 



seventy mouths, and there are at present about fifty regular channels. During 

 the spring floods all the delta and the lower course below Tzaritzîn form one vast 

 body of moving waters, broken only by a few islands here and there, and after 

 each of these floods new beda are formed, old ones filled up, so that the chart of the 

 delta has to be constantly planned afresh. Even the main beds get displaced. 



- 120 Miles. 



