514 
STEPPES OF RUSSIA. 
“ lie in true sand deserts, and a boundless plain of sand stretches 
around Ozenstockau, on which there grows neither tree nor 
shrub. In heavy winds, this plain resembles a rolling sea, and 
the sand hills rise and disappear like the waves of the ocean. 
The heaps of waste from the Olkucz mines are covered with 
sand to the depth of four fathoms.” * No attempts have yet 
been made to subdue the sands of Poland, but when peace and 
prosperity shall be restored to that unhappy country, there is 
no reasonable doubt that the measures, which have proved so 
successful on similar formations in Germany, may be employed 
with advantage in the Polish deserts. 
There are sand drifts in parts of the steppes of Russia, but 
in general the soil of those vast plains is of a different, though 
very varied, composition, and is covered with vegetation. The 
steppes, however, have many points of analogy with the sand 
plains of Northern Germany, and if they are ever fitted for 
civilized occupation, it must be by the same means, that is, by 
planting forests. It is disputed whether the steppes were ever 
wooded. They were certainly bare of forest growth at a very 
remote period; for Herodotus describes the country of the 
Scythians between the Ister and the Tanais as woodless, with 
the exception of the small province of Xylsea between the 
Dnieper and the Gulf of Perekop. They are known to have 
been occupied by a large nomade and pastoral population down 
to the sixteenth century, though these tribes are now much re¬ 
duced in numbers. The habits of such races are scarcely less 
destructive to the forest than those of civilized life. Pastoral 
tribes do not employ much wood for fuel or for constructing, 
but they carelessly or recklessly burn down the forests, and 
their cattle effectually check the growth of young trees wher¬ 
ever their range extends. 
At present, the furious winds which sweep over the plains, 
the droughts of summer, and the rights and abuses of pasturage, 
constitute very formidable obstacles to the employment of 
measures which have been attended with so valuable results on 
the sand wastes of France and Germany. The Russian Gov- 
* Geognosic , ii, p. 1173. 
