CHAPTER X. 



BASIN OF THE DON.-SEA OF AZOV. 

 (Governments of Voronej and Kharkov. — Territory of the Don Cossacks.) 



HE lands draining to the Sea of Azov form no sharply defined 

 region, with bold natural frontiers and distinct populations. The 

 sources of the Don and its head-streams intermingle with those of 

 the Volga and Dnieper — some, like the Medveditza, flowing even 

 for some distance parallel with the Volga. As in the Dnieper and 

 Dniester valleys, the " black lands " and bare steppes here also follow each 

 other successively as we proceed southwards, while the population naturally- 

 diminishes in density in the same direction. The land is occupied in the north 

 and east by the Great Russians, westward by the Little Russians, in the south 

 and in New Russia by colonies of every race and tongue, rendering this region a 

 sort of common territory, where all the peoples of the empire except the Finns 

 are represented. Owing to the great extent of the steppes, the population is some- 

 what less dense than in the Dnieper basin and Central Russia, but it is yearly 

 and rapidly increasing. 



The various eocene, chalk, and Devonian formations of Central Russia are 

 continued in the Don basin, as the granite zone forming the bed of the Bug 

 and Dnieper is similarly prolonged south-eastwards to the neighbourhood of 

 the Sea of Azov. But here are also vast coal measures, offering exceptional 

 advantages which cannot fail to attract large populations towards the banks of 

 the Donetz. 



The Don, the root of which is probably contained in its Greek name Tanais, is 

 one of the great European rivers, if not in the volume of its waters, at least in the 

 length of its course, with its windings some 1,335 miles altogether. Rising in a 

 lakelet in the government of Tula, it flows first southwards to its junction with 

 the nearly parallel Voronej, beyond which point it trends to the south-east, and 

 even eastwards, as if intending to reach the Volga. After being enlarged by the 

 Khopor and Medveditza, it arrives within 45 miles of that river, above which it 

 has a mean elevation of 138 feet. Its banks, like those of the Volga, present the 

 normal appearance, the right being raised and steep, while the left has already 



