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The Ukrainian plateau group, which passes thru the
Ukraine in its entire length is hemmed in on both sides by
two plain regions. Without a break they accompany
the extended plateau groups in the north and south, uniting
finally on the left bank of the Don and the country below
the Caucasus. The northern plain district accompanies
the northern decline of the Ukrainian horst, concealing a
tectonically disturbed substratum; the southern district
accompanies the northern border of the Black Sea and
parts the broken chain of plicate mountains from the
plateau group of the Ukraine.
The northern plain district of the Ukraine joins directly
on to the Polish lowlands, and, indirectly, to the North
German lowland.
The first section of the northern plain district is called
Pidlassye (Podlakhia, land on the Polish border). Its
northern boundary consists of the southern limits of the
White Russian Plateau; the western boundary of the flat
elevations near Sidlez and Bilsk; on the south the plain
borders on the spurs of the Rostoche; in the east the boun-
dary is the Buh-Pripat divide, which is only 170 m. high.
The surface of the Pidlassye is very even, only slightly
undulating in places on the north and south borders.
The river valleys are very broad and flat. Only the great
forest (the well-known Biloveza forest lies here) and the
water-courses bring variety into the monotonous country.
The main stream of the Pidlassye, the Buh, as well as its
tributaries have the character of genuine lowland rivers.
They flow thru their over-great valleys in great turns,
divide into many arms, and form innumerable old river
beds. Besides these we find, in southern Pidlassye, a
large number of lakes and many swamps and moors which
mark the sites of former lakes.
The chalk and tertiary substratum appears only in
very few places, the rest being covered everywhere by sand
and loam, which include boulders and rubble of Finnic-
Scandinavian origin. These are traces of the great (second)
glacial period of Northern Europe, which covered the
entire region of the Pidlassye with glacial ice. The lakes
are morain-lakes. The ice of the glacial period did not reach
Pidlassye. At that time a broad primeval river valley
formed here as an extension of the primeval Vistula river
valley. In this valley the water from the melting glacier
flowed off to the east toward the lowland of the Polissye.
The Polissye (woodland) is one of the most remarkable
lands of Eastern Europe. Only a low (170 m.) and very
flat divide, which is crossed without difficulty by the
Dnieper-Buh ship canal, separates the Polissye from the
Pidlassye. In the north the White Russian Plateau ap-
proaches, in the south the Volhynian, in the east the Polissye
extends beyond the Dnieper to the spurs of the Central
Russian Plateau. The region thus bounded forms an
immense flat trough, in the vertical axis of which the
Pripet River flows. The bottom of this trough is very
flat and lies at a height of 120 — 150 m. Only in places
do we find almost imperceptible rises of ground. The sub-
stratum of the Polissye is composed of chalk marl with
numerous holes made by springs (vikno=window), while
in the east oligocene formations also appear. But this
substratum is seen very seldom, all the rest of the Polissye
being covered with diluvial sands and great swamps. The
sands take in all the elevated places and form wandering
or wood-covered dunes. These sandy rises of ground,
together with the elevated banks of some of the rivers,
afford the only sites for human abodes. All the remaining
land is marshy wood, genuine forest swamps, bog or moor.
The Pripet with its tributaries, the Stokhod, Stir, Hornin,
Ubort, Uz (on the right) and the Pina, Yassiolda, Sluch,
and Ptich (on the left), comprises the water system of the
Polissye. All these rivers flow very slowly and deposit
the mud which they bring from the plateau regions sur-
rounding the Polissye along their courses. By this means
they raise their beds and their banks more and more, so
that all these Polissian rivers flow upon flat dams. At the
time of high water the rivers overflow their banks and
flood the entire lowland far and near. At the time of the
melting of snows in the spring, or of the strong showers
in the early summer, the entire Polissye is transformed
into an immense lake, above whose surface only the flooded
forests and the settled sandy elevations of ground are
visible. The spring flood lasts from two to three months,
the summer floods the same length of time, for the water
flows off very slowly because of the slight decline. On the
highways and railroads all traffic is blocked and certain
places in the Polissye may be reached only by water. Dur-
ing the flood period the rivers have often sought new beds,
and this explains the frequency of old river beds and river
branches, which are peculiar to all the Polissian river
courses. And, as reminders of the floods, innumerable
pools and marsh lakes remain behind.
These periodic floods are the main cause of the con-
tinuance of the Polissian swamps. We can find two main
types of marshes in the Polissye. In the west and north
of the region, great peat moors, with pine woods, predomin-
ate; in the south and east treeless marsh meadows, over-
grown with willow brush. These are called hala. Many
fictions are told by the inhabitants of the Polissye about the
swamps and small marsh lakes being bottomless. For a
long time it was even believed that the swamps lay lower
than the normal surface of the rivers. But exact measure-
ments have proved these "fairy tales" to be false and have
shown that the swamps of the Polissye are not deep and lie
at a higher level than the rivers. Since 1873 the Russian
government has been working to drain the swamps and
reclaim them for civilization. Up to 1898, 6000 kilometers
of canals are supposed to have been dug and 32,000
square kilometers of ground made usable.
The glacial period was of great importance for the
surface configuration of the Polissye. Apart from the
traces of the main glacial period, which are met with
frequently in southern Polissye, it was the third glacial
period that was of marked significance. The water from
the Baltic glacier flowed off thru the region of the present
Polissye and formed a large lake with the Dnieper as its
outlet. The deposits of this lake are to be found especially
in the south of the Polissye basin. The lake was then
gradually filled in, the northern and western tributaries
bringing more sand, the southern ones mud. At the same
time the Pripet River cut in more deeply, and was, there-
fore, constantly more able to carry the waters of the
Polissye to the Dnieper River. Swamps have taken the
place of the lake and have gradually covered the entire
land. The many smaller lakes of the region (the largest
of them are Vihonioske Ozero and Knias) are the only
remains and proofs of the one-time great lake. Only at
the time of high water does the Polissye recall the
memory of former times.
Dreary is the Polissian landscape. The dark forest in
the deep-bottomed swamps alternate with the open
marsh-meadow covered with pools; with gliding flow the
many-armed rivers traverse the gloomy country. On
yellow-white sand-dunes stand a few log-houses amid
wretched little fields and poor meadows, corduroy and
brush roads stretching for miles connect small, very
sparsely scattered human settlements.
The Polissye Plain also extends to the left bank of the
Dnieper, and there imperceptibly passes over into a
comparatively narrow lowland district which stretches
along the main river of the Ukraine. This is the third
member of the series of plains of the Ukraine — the Dnieper
Plain. It extends toward the southeast as far as the
region of the rapids (porohi) of the Dnieper and rises
slowly toward the northeast, passing over into the Central
Russian Plateau. The transition takes place so imper-
ceptibly that the difference in the nature of the country
only becomes apparent at the furthest bounds of Ukrainian
territory, which practically lie in the southern spurs of
the Central Russian Plateau.
The Dnieper Plain is quite level only along the river
itself. Every year a strip of the plain, in places 10 km.
wide, is flooded by the Dnieper River, wherefore it is full
of old river beds and swamps, on the Desna and near
Cherkassy, where the lowland, too, enters upon the right
Dnieper bank, and also of sand-dunes. Near Chernihiv
and Uizin the landscape is quite Polissian and the name
Polissye, too, is often used here to denote the region.
Toward the southeast the Polissian character begins to
gradually disappear. Black earth takes the place of the
sandy soil, the forest mantle becomes constantly thinner,
and the flat, undulating steppe-plain, with its innumerable
barrows and plate-shaped depressions of ground, where, in
springtime, small steppe lakes glisten in the sunlight,
increases very rapidly.
The river valleys, along which the Dnieper Plain
intrudes far into the Central Russian Plateau, are very
wide valley slopes on the right, and flat slopes on the left
side. Sand, swamps and forest terraces cover the flat
valley bottoms, which are flooded every spring.
At the porohs of the Dnieper the country rises much
higher than at Pereyaslav or Kreminchuk, where the
Dnieper Plain rises barely 50 m. above sea-level. At the
porohs the landscape on both sides is that of a low rock-
plateau. The picturesque rocks of the Dnieper banks,
the rapids and ledges of rock in the river bed, everywhere
remind us that here the Ukrainian Horst is crossed by the
main stream of the Ukraine. Not until we get down to the
Zaporoze (land below the rapids) do we find the genuine
lowland character again — in the Pontian Steppe-plain.
The transition of the Dnieper Plain to the southern
spurs of the Central Russian Plateau is marked only by
the rising of the valley slopes of the tributaries of the
Dnieper in this region. Beyond that, the surface of the
high bog, lying between the rivers, remains as flat and level
as on the Dnieper and below the 200 m. level. Moreover,
the spurs of the Central Russian elevation nowhere within
Ukrainian territory attain the level of 300 m. The spur
between the Dnieper and the Desna barely reaches a
height of 230 — 240 m. ; near the high Desna bank, the spur
between the Desna and the Sem barely 260 m. About
the sources of the Sem, Psiol and Donetz, the country
attains a summit height of 280 m.; between the upper
Donetz and Don only 250 — 260 m. From these highest
regions the country declines imperceptibly but steadily
toward the southwest, south and southeast.
The general nature of the land in the region of the
southern spur of the Central Russian Plateau is entirely
analagous to that of the neighboring Dnieper Plain, except
that the river valleys are more deeply cut. The right
valley-side descends to the river in a steep slope, furrowed
by water rifts. The broad, flat valley bottom is occupied
by river branches and old river beds, marshes and marsh
meadows, sand areas or dunes. The left bank rises very
gently, and we at last come upon the level, or at most
slightly undulating surface of the water-shed, between two
rivers. It, in turn, declines suddenly to the neighboring
river and the succession of land-forms begins anew. This
monotony of landscape reminds one of the neighboring
Great Russia. The only variety is afforded here by the
details of landscape, which appear most numerous in this
region of the Ukraine.
These are rain water-rifts (in Ukrainian balka, provallia,
yaruha). In this, and often in other plateau and plain
lands of the Ukraine, they become a terrible scourge. The
heavy mantle of black soil, loess and loam favors the
formation of water-rifts as well as the loose chalk and old
tertiary strata (marl, sand, clay). The strenuous cutting
down of forest in the past century has given the final
impulse to the formation of such water clefts. In the loose
soil, no longer held together by the forests, the water-rifts
grow and spread after every heavy rain with terrible
speed, and may, in a few years, reduce a wealthy farmer to
the beggar's staff by transforming his most profitable
black-soil fields into a maze of deep, dry ravines. Only
a national re-stocking of the forests could bring the land
relief. Especially in the neighborhood of the high precipi-
tous banks of the rivers, the water-rifts work their mischief.
The glacial age had no particular significance for the
surface configuration of the Dnieper Plain and the adjacent
plateau spurs. Only in the north Chernihov country we
find real traces of the glacier. The large peninsulas
which the southern limit of the glacial boulders forms along
the course of the Dnieper and the Don are by no means to
be regarded as traces of two great glacial tongues. The
sand and loam masses, with enclosed glacial boulders,
which are found in the region of these peninsulas, are of
fluvio-glacial origin, and were deposited by melted ice
from the glacier on its way to the Black Sea. The northern
limit of the black soil region is not in the least affected by
these problematic glacial peninsulas.
After the glacial period, however, movements of the
earth took place in the entire Ukrainian plateau group.
It rose considerably, and the erosive action of the rivers
began. At the point where the axis of the Ukrainian
horst cuts the Dnieper, we find this rise of ground also in
the Dnieper Plateau. The rapids of the Dnieper were
formed at that time, and, up to the present, the giant
river has not succeeded in leveling its falls.
That tectonic disturbances are not unknown to the
Dnieper Plain we learn from the occurrence of volcanic
rock and displacement of the strata near Isachki, not far
from the city of Lokhvitza, and on Mount Pivikha, north
of Kreminchuk. It seems that along the northeast border
of the Ukrainian horst a greatly disturbed area is hidden
beneath more recent flat-piled rock layers. Great dis-
turbances of the magnetic force of the earth seem to indicate
the same.
The Dnieper Plain forms the last member in the northern
plain district of the Ukraine. The southern plain district
which extends along the northern banks of the Black Sea,
from the delta of the Danube into the Kuban region, has
since ancient times borne the accepted name of the Pontian
Steppe-plain. Its old Ukrainian name is simply nis (low-
land) or dike pole (wild field. The steppe-land and the
river district, to this day, bear the famous name of Zaporoze
(land below the rapids).
The Pontian steppe-plain is bounded on the north by
the spurs of the Bessarabian, Podolian, Dnieper and Donetz
Plateaus. On the south, by the sea-shore and the country
at the foot of the Yaila Mountains, in Crimea. Past the
Danube deltas the steppe-plain merges into the exactly
similar steppe-plain on the Kuban.
The surface of the steppe-plain is exceptionally flat,
slightly undulating only at the northern border, where
the transition to the southern spurs of the Ukrainian
plateau group proceeds imperceptibly. Innumerable bar-
rows (mohyla) are as characteristic of the landscape of
the Pontian Steppe-plain as the flat plate-shaped depressions
of the ground, with small temporary lakes, the swampy
flat valleys and the small salt marshes with their peculiar
vegetation.
The many balkas, which divide the steppe-plain into
innumerable low plateaus, do not affect the grand uniform-
ity of the steppe landscape very much. As in the neighbor-
ing plateaus, they are cut in deep, but do not become visible
to the traveler until he comes directly upon them. The
pliocene steppe-lime which predominates in the entire
steppe-plain, covers the sarmatian and Mediterranean
strata, and reveals the crystalline substratum only in the
west of the Dnieper in the neighborhood of the Dnieper
Plateau, and forms rocky cornices on the slopes of the
balkas. Lesser tectonic disturbances, in the shape of anti-
clinals and synclinals, have affected these youngest tertiary
formations also. They are covered by a mantle of loess
and black earth, which becomes constantly thinner toward
the south. The typical chornozyom gives way, south of the
parallel of Kherson, to the brown, also very fertile steppe-
soil, which is accompanied in long stretches, however, by
the saline earth. To the east of the Dnieper, at the southern
spurs of the Donetz Plateau, the crystalline substratum
also appears to a great extent, in banks of rock, in the
midst of the steppe-plain.
Only along the large streams of the steppe country
does the nature of the land change. Their valleys are
broad and swampy, covered by the so-called plavni.
Interminable thickets of sedge and seeds, marsh forest
and meadows, together with innumerable river branches,
old river beds, and small lakes, make up a beautiful,
fresh, verdant country in the midst of the boundless
steppe, whose vernal dress, resplendent with blossoms,
turns yellow and blackish-brown in summer and fall,
from the fierce glow of the sun.
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