THE DON. 



423 



been levelied by the action of the water. Thus the Don flows, as it \^ere, on a 

 sort of terrace resembling a stair step, the right or western cliffs seemingly 

 diverting it to the Lower Yolga bed. Nevertheless, before reaching that river, it 

 makes a sharp bend first southwards, then south-westwards to the Sea of Azov. 

 From the commercial stand-point it really continues the course of the Volo-a. 

 Flowing to a sea which, through the Straits of Yeni-Kaleh, the Bosphorus, Darda- 

 nelles, and Gibraltar, communicates with the ocean, it has the immense advantao-e 

 over the Volga of not losing itself in a land-locked basin. Hence most of the 



Fig. 219.— Old IIoissk Tkamway from tiiE Dox to the Volga. 



goods brought down the Volga are landed at the bend nearest the Don, and for- 

 warded to that river. When besiefrins^ Astrakhan the Sultan Selim II. had 

 already endeavoured to cut a canal between the two rivers, in order to transport 

 his supplies to the Caspian. Peter the Great resumed the works, but the under- 

 taking was abandoned, and until the middle of the present century the portage 

 Mas crossed only b}'^ beasts of burden and waggons. But since 1861 the rivers 

 have been connected by rail. 



The irregularity of its flow has hitherto been the chief obstacle in the way of 



