DIMINUTION OF THE RIVERS. 
579 
periods of Russian history, but that owing to drainage of the marshy woodlands 
which fed that stream, it is not held back for a length of time, as of old, in the 
upper natural reservoirs, but flows otf quickly into the low countries, and being 
carried in a short season to the sea, leaves the river too low for navigation in the 
height of the summer season. Whether this opinion be adopted or that of a sensi- 
ble annual diminution of moisture, caused by the destruction of dense forestswhich 
formerly obstructed evaporation, the result is the same as concerning the effects 
upon the surface and the internal tracts of the country. For our own part, we 
can scarcely refrain from thinking, that the axe of the miner (for wood is the chief 
fuel of the Russian mines) has been a prime cause of this increasing drought ; an 
opinion which we formed in the Ural Mountains, from whence the Kama and 
greatest feeders of the Volga proceed, and where the inhabitants, complaining of 
the annual decrease of water, invariably refer this effect to the clearing away of 
their forests. 
Conclusion . — In terminating our view of the physical structure and mutations of 
so vast a portion of the earth’s surface as Russia in Europe and the Ural Mountains, 
we will not attempt to recapitulate, in any lengthened detail, the various results of 
our labours, nor revert to our inferences respecting coal and other mineral produc- 
tions and their intimate dependence upon geological conditions 1 . Those readers 
who may have had the patience to peruse this volume, will, we trust, have found no 
want of illustrations of our views on every geological subject, from the formation 
of the earliest deposits to the comparatively recent changes. which have just been 
alluded to. 
Our first effort was to impart to the reader a correct view of the succession of 
the various sedimentary strata which constitute the framework of these regions, 
by laying before him a series of evidences of the order in which the different forms 
of ancient life succeed to each other. In all that portion of the work, there are, 
we may be allowed to say, no theoretical views whatever. We have there simply 
unfolded the leaves of fossil records that attest the former presence of many 
generations of animals, which having respectively lived their day, were succeeded 
by others. In so doing, we have endeavoured to act as fair and impartial historians, 
and we are bound to say, that the examination of the subsoil of Russia has very 
much extended and improved our general knowledge of the events, which have 
1 See Preface, and pp. 77, 89 to 123, &c. 
