170 THE GROWTH OF RUSSIA 



Tt) all this eastern Earoi)e ))resents a marvelous contrast. What- 

 ever western Europe is. that eastern Europe is not. A prodigious 

 plain, more than two thousand miles in len<rth and almost a thou- 

 sand miles in hreadth, stretches southward Irom the flat shores of 

 tlie Arctic Ocean. Hemming it in as houndaries and marking its 

 extent are, on the northwest, the Valdai Hills and the granite cliffs 

 of Finland ; on the southwest, the Carpathians ; on the south, the 

 loft}' spurs of the Crimea and of the Caucasus ; on the east, the Ural 

 Mountains. Thus outlined in immensit}' l)etween its mountain limits 

 is an area of almost two million square miles. This area is uniform 

 and monotonous. Except at the extreme west, south, and east, no- 

 where does the surface of the ground attain an elevation of 1.000 

 feet. Not a single range of lofty hills, not a single lonely jteak hreaks 

 the universal sameness. The rivers, tortuous and creeping, seem 

 douhtful in which direction to find their channels. The Volga 

 tlirough its 2,400 miles of wandering has an average fall of onl}' four 

 inches to the mile. The geologic strata are horizontal. I»arely does 

 a houlder or rock emerge ahove the surface of the ground. Even the 

 win'ds are seldom fitful. Either the}' blow witli icy coldness in un- 

 hindered sweep from the Arctic Ocean or come with the hot breath 

 of the sands from the south and the deserts of Turkestan. 



Degrees of latitude do not affect the essential territorial unity ; 

 neither do the four so-called agricultural zones which, rudely par- 

 allel to each other. occui)y tlie entire area. By far the vastest is tlie 

 forest zone or forest region, with an extent of 1,400,000 square miles. 

 League after league, it stretches northward — somber, awful, infinite — 

 V»roken here and there by wide, o))en tracts, and yet seemingly con- 

 tinuous until it ends amid polar marshes which never thaw. It is 

 l)ounded on the south liy the zoneof ])lack earth, ^^'ithout artificial 

 stimulant, there the exhaustless soil yields harvests as abundant as in 

 the days when half of Eurojie was dependent upon it fov food. It 

 covers an area equal to the combined territory of Ohio, Indiana. Illi- 

 nois. jNIichigan, and Wisconsin, and is prolonged l)eyond the Ural and 

 Caucasus into western Asia. Next comes the region of the stejjpe, 

 where a forest or a tree is rare. ]»ut where the tall grass and reeds 

 shoot up often seven or eight feet high. All of this territory is capa- 

 ble of cultivation. It equals in extent Kentucky, Tennessee, Mis- 

 souri, Arkansas, and Mississippi combined. Last of all are the in- 

 describable, shapeless tracts along the southern mouths of the rivers. 

 These form the so-called barren steppe, which no industry or art of 



