RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
9 
blow over Russia, but they have become cUy, without moisture ; 
consequently the rainfall of western Russia is only about twenty 
or twenty-five inches, or half that of western Europe. This 
steadily diminishes toward the east, leaving the steppes of east- 
ern Russia dry and barren, unless irrigated. The tem])erature 
diminishes rapidly from the west to the east. North of 50°, 
or far south of Moscow, it diminishes more rapidly from the 
west to the east than from the south to the north. 
Over the vast plain of Russia the winds blow without obstruc- 
tion. The cold winter winds bring from the Arctic ocean the 
temperature of the polar regions, while the warm summer winds 
from the Black sea convey the temperature of the torrid zone. 
Spring and autumn are almost unknown, for as soon as the frost 
is gone, about the middle of April or the first of May, the wheat 
and grain fields and the foliage of the trees burst forth with a 
rapidit}' unknown in our country. 
RACES. 
Although Russia is one of the most uniform and level of 
countries, yet few are occupied by as great a variety of races. 
Southern and middle Russia were for centuries the great high- 
ways over which vast numbers of barbaric hordes — Scythians, 
Huns, Mongols, and Vandals — passed from Asia through Russia 
into Italy, Hungaiy, Poland, Germany, and by the Dari el pass 
over the Caucasus into Asia Minor. Some of each of these 
tribes remained ; all left their impress U{)on Russia. While 
these tribes were overrunning Russia the Slavonians came, to- 
day the ]>redominant race, the last of the Aryans to leave their 
original home, ai\il these retained when they entered Russia 
many Asiatic habits. In the fifth and sixth centuries they prol)- 
ably occu[)ied the region now known as “ Little Russia” and were 
the germ of the great Russian empire. ^Vhen the Slavonians 
entered Russia they found Mongols, Finns, and Huns; with 
.some they intermarried; others they pushed into northern and 
Arctic Russia, a region without temptation for the Aryan or other 
Avandering tribes. 
From the Avest came the Northmen, Avho settled the country 
about the Baltic sea and founded NoA'gorod the Great, tlie oldest 
toAvn in Russia, and brought many of the customs and habits 
of western Europe. In the fifteenth century NoA'gorod was the 
largest and most important town in northern Euroj)c and a 
