Ukraine: The Ukrainian Plateau Country

The Carpathians, the Yaila and the Caucasus, are immovable boundary-walls, marking the southern borders of the Ukraine. On its wide surface there are only these narrow ¦zones of mountain country. All the remaining territory of our fatherland is occupied by plateaus and plains. Upon these the Ukrainian nation has lived since the dawn of history. . Not cloud-capped highlands, but level, lightly undulating plateaus, furrowed by picturesque river valleys and immeasurable plains, are characteristic of the Ukraine.

Between the Carpathians and the Ural Mountains there extends an immense space which once bore the name of Sarmatian Plain and is now generally called the Russian Tableland, tho the name East European Lowland would be geographically the most fitting. In this space, which embraces half the surface of Europe, only one group of hills in the Pokutia rises above 500 m., and only one small part of the Podolia above 400 m. The entire remaining space of Eastern Europe, with slight exceptions, keeps below the 300 or even 200 m. level.

In the northern part of Eastern Europe, the lands over 200 m. high take up very little room. Like great flat islands, they rise gently from the spacious cool lowlands. In Central Europe the surface of the high part of the flat country is relatively the greatest, but these rises of ground are so insignificant and the transitions to the low plain so imperceptible, that the main features of the surface of this part of Europe were only discovered in the second half of the Nineteenth Century.

In the Ukrainian south of Eastern Europe the character of the ground elevations is different. They are the highest of all in Eastern Europe and separate very distinctly, largely by means of steep edges, from the surrounding plains. The genuine plateau landscape is the type of landscape peculiar to the Ukraine.

The Ukrainian plateau group, the real morphological nucleus of the land about which its borderlands are gathered, extends from the sub-Carpathian country and the Polish Vistula-region to the Sea of Azof and the Donetz River. It consists of the following plateaus: Rostoche, Podolia, Pokutye (Bessarabia), Volhynia, Dnieper Plateau and Donetz Plateau.

We shall begin our survey of the Ukrainian plateaus with the Podolia. The Podolian Plateau is the most massive of all the plateaus in the Ukraine, the highest, and the one possessing the most distinctive features of a heavily cut high plain.

If, leaving the Carpathians, we overlook the surrounding country from the edge of the mountain range, we observe behind the wide stretch of the sub-Carpathian hills and plains, just on the horizon, wide, flat elevations, which obstruct the horizon in the north. These are the edges of the Podolian Plateau.

The western boundary of Podolia is formed by the wide valley of the little Vereshitza River, a valley covered with swampy meadows and large ponds. On the south and southeast, Podolia is bounded by the valley of the Dniester River, which is first wide and then narrows down to a canon. Between the lower course of the Dniester and the Boh, the Podolian Plateau gradually leads into the Pontian Steppe-plain. On the north and northeast, Podolia is bounded by the rocky valley of the Boh and then by the river divide, which extends toward the west, between the basins of the Dniester and Dnieper Rivers. Near its limit begins the well-known steep edge which forms the decline of the Podolian Plateau to the plain of the Buh. From Brody to Lemberg, the northern boundary of Podolia is very clearly marked by this steep edge.

Despite its distinct plateau character, Podolia is by no means lacking in beautiful landscapes. The northern, steep, border of the Plateau occasionally rises for 200 m. above the swampy Buh plain, and its height above sea level is in some places 470 m. The whitish-gray chalk-marl which forms the basis of this land grade glitters from a dis- tance, exposed thru the action of the water, which flows down the steep side. The miocene sandstone lying above shows fantastic rock piles and ravines. Beautiful beech forests are to a great extent still maintaining themselves on the steep edge. From a distance, everything produces the illusion of a high forest-covered chain of hills. On climbing it, however, we see in the south only an unbounded lightly undulating elevated plain, with flat valleys filling the entire view.

Toward the southwest, too, Podolia declines with a similar steep border, but this one is neither so uniform nor so high and picturesque. These steep borders owe their origin to a recent uprising, which has affected the Podolian Plateau, especially in the west, since the glacial period. To the same cause the picturesque, beautifully wooded, eroded hill-country of the Opilye owes its origin, a section which extends southeast from Lemberg in the regions of Rohatin and Berezani to the Dniester, and which, with its peaks, reaches a height of 440 m. Most remarkable, however, is the long chain of rocky hills which extends from. Brody to the southeast toward Kamenetz Podilski. This chain of hills, which bears the name of Toutri, is marked on all maps by the wilfully chosen name of Medo- bori. The limestone rock, which contains a great amount of fossils, forms fantastic crags on the more than 400 m. peaks of the hill-chain, which look down upon the land like old fortresses. The entire chain of hills is a new-tertiary coral and briozone reef which, after the withdrawal of the sea, remained behind as a long rock dyke.

Beyond this hilly region the entire Podolian Plateau has a flat, undulating surface. Beginning as far back as the upper Sereth and Sbruch we find typical steppe-plains. The farther southwest, the more flat, undulating and steppe- like sections do we meet, until finally the Podolian elevation gradually merges in the Pontian steppe-plain.

Much variety and beauty is given to the appearance of the Podolian landscape by the valleys of the Dniester tributaries on the left. In their upper parts they are wide and have flat, swampy ground, many ponds and bogs and gentle valley declines. In its further course the river begins to cut in more and more deeply, the valley becomes constantly narrower and deeper and winds on in regular bends, the valley-sides become higher and steeper, bare walls of rock take the place of the soft green slopes. We are in a Podolian "y ar >" in a miniature canon.

In the sides of the yars the geologic history of the Podilia is engraved in imperishable letters. The river has sawed the plateau thru as tho with a gigantic saw, and has exposed the various layers of stone. As a rule they lie nearly horizontally above one another.

The oldest rock species of Podolia are the granite- gneisses, which were folded and disturbed in pre-cambrian times. The lines of the folds and breaks stretch principally north to south. Granite composes the rocks of the Dniester rapids near Yampol and the numerous rapids of the Boh River, in whose rocky vale this primitive rock formation appears distinctively. On the granite base, almost horizon- tally, slightly turned toward the southwest, lie dark slate and limestone, upper silurian at first in West Podolia, then the devonic layers, of which the old red sandstone attracts the eye most of all, because of the dark red coloring which it gives to the steep walls of the Podolian canons. These are followed by chalk layers, and, last of all, by recent tertiary formation whose gypsums form picturesque groups of rocks on the heights of the Yari walls. In the mighty gypsum stores of Podolia may be found many a large, beautiful cave, with wonderful alabaster stalactites.

All tributaries on the left side of the Dniester, beginning at the Zolota Lipa, flow into yari-cafions of this sort. The most beautiful and magnificent is the canon of the Dniester, whose walls often exceed a height of 200 m. It cuts thru the high plateau in adventurous windings, every curve revealing new, beautiful prospects over the high, concave, steep edge, torn by ravines, and the gently rising convex banks. In deep gorges the yari of the tributaries open into the yar of the main stream. Between the defiles stretches the flat, hardly undulating plain. In the summer only endless waving grain-steppes present themselves to the view of the traveler, only here and there a little wood appears on the horizon, or a lone farm. Suddenly the wood seems to end, the traveler is confronted by a deep, steppe- walled valley, down the sides of which climbs the road. And below, on the silvery river, amid the green of the or- chards, lies village after village.

The further to the east, the more frequent do the yari become, and the balkas (gorges) similar to them but smaller; yet these are not so deep and picturesque. In the regions of Tiraspol Ananiv the entire plateau surface is very profusely cut by these defiles. In the district of Ananiv the balkas take up one-seventh of the entire sur- face. The plateau is cut up by these water crevasses into innumerable narrow fens.

The balka, like the yar, owes its existence to the erosive activity of flowing waters. On the Dniester we see, on both sides of its deep yars, great masses of old river boulders, which lie on the summit of the plateau beneath the thick cover of loam. They are boulder deposits of the pre-glacial Dniester. Later, when the recent raising of the Ukrainian plateau group began, and it occurred with particular force in the Podolian Plateau, the rivers cut in, and in the course of thousands of years formed their present picturesque defiles.

The entire surface of the Podolian Plateau is covered with a thick mantle of loess, which was formed in the desert and steppe period following the glacial age. In the manner in which the loess is heaped up, in the symmetry of the river valleys, whose western declivities are regularly steeper, in the general arrangement and formation of the valleys of Podolia, the great influence of winds may be distinctly recognized. The uppermost loess layer has been transformed thru- out Podolia into the famous black earth (Chomozem). Hence Podolia has for ages been famous for its fertility. "In Podolia," says an old Ukrainian proverb, "bread grows on the hedgeposts and the hedges are of plashed sausages." On the other hand, Podolia suffers greatly from lack of forests. The large areas of forest which still existed in the 16th and 17th Centuries have now divided to small woods. The effects of forest destruction were not slow. Many springs and brooks have dried up, the rivers have languished, so that in particularly dry summers there is often a dearth of water. On the other hand, after the cutting down of the forests, began the destructive activity of the gorges, which extend after every strong rain and are able in a short time to transform a rich agricultural district into a maze of ravines.

Between the Podolian Plateau and the hilly sub- Carpathian country lies the Pocutian-Bessarabian Plateau. The far-stretching narrow plateau section which lies between the valleys of the Dniester and the Prut is called Pokutye (land in the corner) in the west, while in the east the name Bessarabia (properly Bassarabia) is commonly used. In the west the plateau country reaches the valleys of the Bistritza and Vorona in the sub-Carpathian region; in the southeast it passes over into Pontian steppe-plain. On the Dniester one sees almost no difference between the character of Podolia on the left bank and of Pocutia or Bessarabia on the right. On both sides the same valley slopes, composed of the same rock layers — except that the one on the right bank is more compact, because the Dniester • receives only few and small tributaries on this side. Only at some distance from the course of the Dniester do the peculiarities of the Pokutian-Bessarabian Plateau appear to the view.

The western part of the plateau, which bears the name of Pokutye and extends to the east as far as the hill-group of Berdo-Horodishche, has a level, very flat, undulating surface, And yet it is a typical karstenite country, affected by the existence of great strata of gypsum. The region has a very great number of funnel-shaped depressions which are called Vertep and are altogether analogous to the Carso dolomites. They originated thru the dissolving action of the subterranean water in the gypsum strata. The funnel walls are always steep on one side, gray gypsum rocks rise like walls over the bottom of the funnel, which is often occupied by a small lake. Many brooks disappear in the karstenite funnels, to continue their course as subterranean streams. Nor does Pokutye lack other marks of a karstenite region. The action of the subterranean waters has, by dissolving the gypsum masses, formed large caves, which are famous for their beautiful stalactites of white alabaster. The best known are the cave of Lokitki, near Tovmach, and in the neighboring South Podolia, the caves of Bilche Zolote and the recently discovered magnificent caves of Crivche.

However, the karstenite country of the Pokutye cannot bear comparison with the karstenite regions of Krain, Istria and Croatia. Gypsum is not limestone, and its strength is insignificant as compared with strength of the lime-stone in genuine karstenite regions. A genuine kar- stenite formation therefore does not exist in Pokutye, and a thick cover of clay is only in exceptional cases broken by gypsum rocks.

The Pokutian Plateau is much lower than the Podolian. Only in isolated places does it attain a height of 370 — 380 m. and becomes constantly lower toward the east. But north of Chernivtzi (Czernowitz) it rises to a height which we look for in vain in all the rest of the Ukrainian plateau group. The wooded hill-group of the Berdo Horodishche here reaches 515 m., the greatest height above sea level to be found between the Carpathians and the Ural. In the east, Berdo Horodishche passes over into the chain of hills of Khotin, which attains a height of 460 m. and marks the eastern end of the Pocutia. The southeastern long and wide Bessarabian section of the plateau is divided into far-reaching narrow marshes by the flat valleys of the Prut and Reut Rivers. The Prut-Dniester river divide attains a height of 420 m. (Megura hill) in the headwater region of the Reut south of the city of Bilzi. The south- eastern part of the Bessarabian plateau consists of very numerous low marshes, which lie between flat valleys. The plateau becomes constantly lower and flatter and passes imperceptibly over into the Pontian Steppe-plain.

The third member of the Ukrainian plateau group is the Rostoche. Looking from the summit of the castle mountain of Lemberg, famous for its beautiful prospect, we see, just behind the broad valley of the Poltva River, a chain of high wooded hills which stretch toward the north- east. They form the spurs of the Rostoche.

The Rostoche, called also the Lemberg-Lublin Ridge, lies, a profusely cut, hilly, narrow plateau, which is bounded on the one side by the San and Vistula Plain, on the other side by the low country of the Buh. Toward the southwest the Rostoche has a steep rim, which, as a matter of fact, is rather insignificant-looking; toward the east it resolves itself into parallel hill-ridges, which gradually become lower and between which lie marshy valleys.

The southern part of the Rostoche, which merges with the Podolian Plateau near Lemberg and extends to the broad, sandy and marshy glacial river valley of Tanva toward the northwest, is a plateau transformed into an erosive hill-country. The highest hills attain a height of 400 m. The river valleys are in general flat; only along the steep borders of the plateau are they cut deep. The steep western border is very picturesque, with its deep gorges and loess walls. Many vigorous springs appear here, among them the well-known Parashka spring, from which a heavy column of water rises from time to time.

The oldest rock layer of the Rostoche is the chalk-marl. Above it lie, in almost undisturbed horizontal layers, miocene limestone, sandstone, clay, sand, Diluvial loam, while sand and broken stone with many boulders, which are of unmistakable northern origin and were transported by glaciers and streams of the ice period as far as the southern part of the Rostoche, form a heavy cover every- where. The ground is not very fertile, sand and marl soil being particularly wide-spread.

The northern part of the Rostoche, beyond the Tanva valley, is a broad, slightly undulating plateau, which, in its highest part, reaches a height of only 340 m. The western edge of the plateau is distinct and steep and declines in places 100 m. to the low country of the Vistula. Toward the north the plateau surface declines very gradually and merges almost imperceptibly into the plain of the Pidlassye. The river valleys, as those of the Buh, Vepr, are broad, flat and marshy.

The geological constitution of the northern Rostoche is almost entirely similar to that of the southern part. Its soil cover, too, is not very fertile, and only great woods have survived, especially in the districts of the old morainic sand and loam. Only in the neighborhood of the Pidlassye does the soil become more fertile. For the configuration of surface of the Rostoche, the recent post-glacial raising of the ground has also been of great significance, altho here it was not nearly so intensive as in Podolia.

The Volhynian Plateau extends over a broad space between the Buh in the west and the Teterev in the east, between the swampy plain of the Polissye in the north and the Dniester-Dnieper watershed and the upper Boh valley in the south. The Volhynian Plateau does not possess the compactness of the Podolian or Rostoche Plateau. The swampy lowland of the Polissye extends along the rivers into the heart of Volhynia, thereby dividing its plateau country into several sections of different size. Likewise, the inner structure and geological constitution of Volhynia is variable. Western Volhynia, situated between the Buh and Horin Rivers, has a sub-layer of chalk marl, which is capped in places by layers of clay and sandstone and limestone of recent tertiary date. Eastern Volhynia lies entirely in the region of the primeval Ukrainian Horst, whose plicate granite-gneiss sub-layer is covered by old tertiary deposits. In this tectonically disturbed region we meet with traces of early volcanic action. Near Berestovetz, Horoshki, etc., species of eruptive rock appear as signs of radical disturbances of the earth's surface.

The surface soil of Volhynia is black soil only in the south. Beyond that we find here sandy soil, white earth and loamy soil, as signs of a one-time glacial covering and the action of fluvio-glacial waters. Many regions of loamy ground are rich in vegetable soil and not without considerable fertility.

The lowest part of the Volhynian Plateau is the western part, which lies between the broad, marshy, flat valleys of the Buh and the Stir. The slightly undulating, almost level plateau surface, which declines imperceptibly toward the Polissye, here just attains a height of 200 m., while the next section, between the Stir and the Horin is the highest part of Volhynia. As an extension of the above-mentioned northern edge of Podolia, the Kremianetz-Ostroh hill- country intrudes between the two rivers. Over 400 m. high, near the city of Kremianetz, it declines toward the north, a steep section torn by gorges and ravines. Near Dubno, the plateau is cut into a picturesque hill country with a maximum height of 340 m. The hills of Volhynia have steep, often rocky declines and flattened rocky peaks.

North of Rivne and Lutzk they finally begin to be lower and more rounded, then they dwindle to a flat billowy tract of land, until, at the borders of the Polissye, we see only an almost perfect plain.

Between the Horin and Sluch Rivers, the Volhynian Plateau becomes more uniform. Its surface is flat, and broad valleys of the rivers which flow toward the east, form- ing numerous ponds, part it slightly. Only in the south is a height of more than 300 m. reached; in the north, where the granite sub-layer appears everywhere, especially in river valleys, barely 200 m.

The eastern part of the Volhynian Plateau extends, at first, as a narrow plateau zone between the valleys of the Boh and the Teterev on one side and of the Sluch on the other. Then the plateau spreads out like a fan toward the north. At the source of the Boh and the Sluch, the plateau reaches a height of 370 m.; at the sources of the Teterev, 340 m. Here the surface is level, except that here and there low, gently-rounded hills arise. In the broad, northern part, the Volhynian Plateau becomes much lower and finally separates into individual plateau islands, as, for example, near Novhorod, Volinski, Zitomir, Ovruch, which rise gently from the marshy lowlands.

The valleys of the Volhynian rivers, broad, flat, with gentle slopes and marshy bottoms, differentiate the Volhy- nian landscape most strongly from the Podolian. The Volhynian landscape presents a view of flat, wooded hills, slowly flowing streams between flat banks, marshes and marshy meadows, sandy ground — all signs of the proximity of the Polissye.

The Dnieper Plateau has the outlines of a longish, irregular polygon. On the northwest it is bounded by the rocky valley of the Teterev, on the southwest by the Boh River, on the south and southwest by the Pontian steppe-plain, on the northeast by the Dnieper River.

This great space, however, does not constitute a uni- form plateau. The broad river valleys and broad de- pressions which traverse the plateau have parted it into several sections. Only the uniform sub-layer and the geologic character, as well as the uniform appearance of the landscape, determine the natural unity of the region.

The sub-layer of the Dnieper Plateau is made up of the primitive granite-gneiss clod of the Ukrainian horst. The granite-gneiss formations were folded in the pre- cambrian period. The folds and quarries stretch principally from north to south, and appear very distinctly near Zitomir and Korsun, and at the rapids of the Dnieper. The mesozoic layers also, which lie close to the granite- horst, are folded at Trekhtimiriv. The tertiary layers, which form a thin cover over the granite, lie mostly in undisturbed horizontal lines. Only along the right, steep bank of the Dnieper we see them folded and broken thru by quarries. In the neighborhood of the Shevchenko barrow they appear most distinctly.

The occurrence of eruptive rock in the south of the plateau, appearing in mound-shaped flat hills, is, however, connected only with the old disturbances in the horst.

This species of rock of the Dnieper Plateau appears al- most solely in the declivities of the valleys and balkas. Otherwise it is covered everywhere by an immense mantle of loam, loess, and chornozyom. The glacial deposits, whose southern boundary passes through Zhitomir, Tarashcha, Chihirin, and Kreminchuk, present, in the territory of the Dnieper Plateau, examples of genuine fluvio-glacial moraine, as well as sands of no great depth, and in rather erratic distribution.

The configuration of surface of the Dnieper Plateau is varied enough. The greatest height (300 m.) is reached south of Berdichiv. Toward the east and southeast the plateau becomes constantly lower. This lowering, however, does not proceed regularly, different sections of the plateau presenting different conditions in this respect.

The section projecting furthest toward the west to the Sob and Ross Rivers is a level, slightly divided plateau, with a maximum height of 300 m. The tributaries of the Teterev, Irpen and Ross flow slowly in flat valleys thru whole rows of ponds. Where they enter the plain they finally have steep granite banks and rocky beds. The plateau section between the Sob and Ross Rivers in the west and the Siniukha and Huili Tikich in the east has more valleys. The river valleys and balkas are deeper, their sides rockier, and thru them the plateau is transformed in places into chains and groups of flat hills. But this plateau section is lower than the preceding one, attaining only 260m. Still lower is the section between the Siniukha and the Inhuletz. It attains a height of only 240 m. and is very even. The granite sub-layer appears here even in the level steppe; the valleys and balkas are cut deep with rocky bottoms and rocky slopes.

Besides these three sections, the Dnieper plateau em- braces two long strips of plateau which stretch along the right bank of the Dnieper. The one is surrounded by the Dnieper, Irpen, and Ross Rivers, the other stretches from the source of the Tiasmin to the rapids of the Dnieper. The height of these strips of plateau is negligible, the highest points attaining just 190 m. near Kiev, 240 m. between Trekhtimirev and Kaniv, 250 m. near Chihirin, and barely 180 m. at the first of the rapids. The steep declivity with which the plateau strips descend to the Dnieper plain emphasize the antithesis between plateau and plain in this region very markedly.

The difference in level surpasses 100 m. near Kiev and Katerinoslav and 150 m. near the Shevchenko barrow, not far from Kaniv. The declivity of the right bank of the Dnieper is much torn by gorges, and everywhere we see picturesque rock piles. The steep bank appears, especial- ly to a plain-dweller, like a chain of mountains and is even called "the mountains of the Dnieper." The idea of a "mountain bank" of the Dnieper, therefore, need not be rejected outright. The aspect of Kiev and the Shevchenko barrow is one of the most beautiful in the entire Ukraine.

On ascending this "mountain chain," however, which appears so imposing from the left bank of the river, and looking toward the west, we find before us only a slightly undulating plateau surface, with rounded dome-shaped hills and deep valleys, belonging to the right-hand tribu- taries of the Dnieper.

The nature of the landscape of the Dnieper Plateau is, consequently, different from that of the Volhynian or Podo- lian. The lightly undulating plateau, gradually becoming flatter toward the east and south and broken up only near the river valleys into flat dome-shaped hills; the valleys of the rivers, wide, not deep, and yet with rocky river beds and rocky slopes, with loess gorges and walls; the mighty Dnieper with its picturesque mountain shores; the never- ending grain steppes crossed by little woods, mohilas and long, extended old walls of rock — this is the landscape view of the old Kiev country, the heart of the Ukraine.

The Dnieper Plateau becomes constantly lower toward the southeast, without, however, losing its original land- scape nature in the least. Near the Dnieper rapids we see, quite distinctly, that the miocene-covered sub-layer of granite of the Ukrainian plateau group stretches straight across the river and is the cause of its rapids. But the differences in level at that point are no longer different from the variations in a plain. In the region of the source of the Samara and along the Donetz the land finally rises above the 200 m. level again. We are now in the Donetz Plateau.

As near as Isium we confront the first boundary post of the plateau in the steep chalk rocks of Mt. Kremianetz on the Donetz River. Further down we see the picturesque rocks of the famous monastery of "the Holy Hills." All these are parts of the northern verge of. the plateau, which is its limit on the north. Near Slavianoserbsk and Luhansk this picturesque border reaches a height of 70 m. The course of the Donetz also forms the eastern boundary; the southern boundary is formed by the small strip of the Pon- tian Plain on the shore of the Sea of Azof; the western bor- der is denoted by the plain on the left bank of the Dnieper.

The Donetz Plateau stretches in a long flat ridge from N. W. W. to S. E. E., and extends a flat side-ridge to either side. The longer one goes southward, almost as far as Mariupil, the other northward to Bakhmut. The surface of the plateau is very level and declines very flatly toward all sides. Only light billows of land traverse the steppe surface, which is strewn with countless tumuli. In the south these hills often have a core of granite. The river valleys have steep, altho not high slopes. They divide the uniform surface of the heights but slightly. From the surface configuration one could never guess that at this point there was once a mountain range which fell victim to the exogenous forces of the earth's water and air blanket. Only an insignificant part of the surface of the Donetz Plateau lies more than 300 m. high; the highest point, Tovsta Mohila, barely reaching 370 m.

In its inner structure it is entirely different from all other parts of the Ukrainian group of plateaus. The entire south and west of the plateau is composed of folded granite- gneiss, of the Azof part of the horst, capped by a thin tertiary layer, and in many places (especially between Volnovakha and Kalmius) broken thru by eruptive rock formations. Next to these, in the north and south of the plateau, lie limestone, slate, clay and sandstone formations of devonian, carbonic, permian, Jurassic and cretaceous age, folded and broken thru by ravines. Over this leveled basic range lie the horizontal tertiary layers. The great development of the coal-containing carbon layers gives to the monotonous, only recently bared steppe elevation of the Donetz Plateau, great significance for the industrial life of all Easter/i Europe. The coal-fields of the Donetz Plateau, 23,000 km. in size, are the richest and most impor- tant coal region of the present Russian Empire. Thanks to these "black diamonds," a forest of factory chimneys (sparsely sown as yet, to be sure) has sprung up within the most recent past in the black steppe, where the anthracite and pit-coal collieries furnish the desired nourishment. Besides this, the permian layers of the Donetz Plateau hold great deposits of rock-salt. Here, too, lie the only quicksilver mines of the Russian Empire in Europe. Rich copper deposits are being exploited here, besides which we must mention the occurrence of zinc, silver, lead, and even gold in this Donetz region, which has not yet been sufficiently explored by the mining prospector.

The Donetz Plateau forms the easternmost member of the Ukrainian plateau group, which constantly narrows toward the east. Outside of this, the group rises only at the southernmost spurs of the Central Russian Plateau above the 200 m. level. These regions of the Ukraine, however, we may safely discuss in our description of the Dnieper Plain, for the transition from this plain to the Central Russian elevation is so imperceptible and gradual, the plateau character so undecided, that even from the scientific morphological point of view, one can hardly find any differ- ence between the plain landscape and the neighboring combined elevated surfaces.