THE TUNDRAS AND STEPPES OF PREHISTORIC EUROPE. 325 



up, so that sand and dust rise with every wind, and as the open plains 

 are often swept by summer burans, vast quantities of loose materials 

 are transported from place to place, and here and there accumulate 

 in hollows and depressions, or come to rest in the lee of sheltering- rocks 

 and hills. In winter, if little snow has fallen, the unprotected ground 

 is similarly scoured by the tempests, dust, sand, and even small stone 

 being carried forward. Thus both in summer and winter sand and 

 dust storms play an important role, and loose materials are piled up to 

 great depths in valleys, and in the ravines, fissures, and crevices of the 

 rocky hills. 



As a rule these heaps and sheets of drifted sand and dust show little 

 or no arrangement, although now and again some trace of bedding may 

 appear. Should they chance to become well covered with snow in 

 winter, then, when warmth returns and the snow gradually melts away, 

 plants quickly spring up, and the heaps become fixed and cease to drift. 

 It is obvious that not infrequently land shells, and often enough the 

 remains of mammals, must be entombed in such wind-blown materials. 



In winter, however, it is snow more commonly than dust that drifts 

 before the wind. The great snowstorms of the subarctic steppes are 

 quite as terrible as those of the tundras. No life can withstand the 

 fury of the blizzards, and many are the disasters on record. Thus in 

 1827 all the flocks and herds that wandered over the steppes between 

 the Volga and the Urals perished in one great storm. According to the 

 Government report the loss sustained by the Kirghiz amounted to 

 10,500 camels, 280,500 horses, 30,480 cattle, and 1,012,000 sheep. Not 

 many years pass without some disaster of this kind, and when the snow 

 has melted away, hundreds of cattle, often far strayed, may be found 

 huddled together in one place — some suffocated, frozen, or starved to 

 death, others drowned in the creeks and ravines in which they had 

 vainly sought for refuge from the blast. Now we can readily conceive 

 how the carcasses might eventually be buried under drifted sand and 

 dust, and the bony skeletons thus become preserved for an indefinite 

 period. 



Among the most characteristic animals of the subarctic steppes are 

 jerboas, pouched marmots, bobac, pika or tailless hare, small hamster 

 rat, various voles, corsac, caragan fox, manul cat, saiga, dzeggetai, 

 wild horse, etc. Besides these, many other animals are met with in the 

 steppes, but are hardly so characteristic, since they range into adjacent 

 regions, to which they more properly belong. Among them may be 

 mentioned lynx, wild-cats, tiger, wolf, jackal, common fox, martens, 

 ermine, weasel, otter, glutton, badger, brown bear, squirrels, beaver, 

 common hare, mountain hare, wild boar, elk, reindeer, roedeer, stag, 

 etc. Several hundred species of birds frequent the steppes, among 

 which may be mentioned great and little bustards, larks, grouse, buz- 

 zards, eagles, owls, etc. 



We may now sum up, in a few words, those features and characters 



