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Glancing at the map of the Ukraine, we perceive at
once that in this country we should seek in vain for such
a variety of surface configuration as is peculiar to Central
or Western Europe. In Germany or France there appear
in a comparatively small space the most varied landscape
chains of high mountains, central chains of mountains,
terrace and hill country, plateaus and plains.
It is different here in our wide Ukraine. One can
travel hundreds of miles in any direction without seeing
a change in the character of the scenery. The uniformity
which is typical for Eastern Europe is peculiar also to the
Ukraine. But not to the extent that it is to Great Russia,
where the endlessness of the flat country wearies the eye of
the traveler. For there are in the Ukraine landscapes of
high and central chains of mountains, picturesque hill
districts and richly cut plateaus, marshy plains and steppes
strewn with barrows. There is, then, in the Ukraine, a
variety of surface configuration, but on a large scale, not as
in Western or Central Europe, confined in a small space.
The morphological nucleus of the Ukraine is the closed
group of pleateaus, which extends from the country at
the foot of the Carpathians and the Polish part of the Vis-
tula region to the Sea of Azof. Pontian Plateau or Avra-
tinian Ridge are the commonly used but incorrect names
of this plateau group. The first designation might do,
but the second transfers the name of a little destitute
hamlet at the source of the Sbruch to a territory of hun-
dreds of thousands of square miles. We shall, therefore,
select for this plateau group the name Ukrainian Plateau
Group.
It forms a compact whole between the Carpathians and
the Dnieper and is divided into the following individual
sections: The Rostoch, between the San and Buh Rivers;
Volin, between the Boh and the Teterev; Podolia, between
the Dniester and the Boh; the Pocutian Bessarabian
Plateau, between the Dniester and the Prut; the Dnieper
Plateau, between the Boh and the Dnieper. The plateau
character continues at the rapids section of this river on
the left bank, where, at some distance, the last member
of the Ukrainian Plateau Group lies the Donetz Plateau.
The plateau group of the Ukraine is bordered on the
north and south by two plain districts. The northern
district consists of adjoining lowlands Pidlassye, Polissye,
and the Dnieper plain and their extensions along the
Donetz; the southern district is made up of the long
stretch of the Pontian steppe-plain, which, in the country
at the foot of the Caucasus, merges into the Caspian desert-
steppe.
Beyond the northern plain district, Ukrainian territory
does not extend, except in the Don region, where it embraces
the southern spurs of the Central Russian Plateau.
Besides these plateau and plain regions the Ukraine
takes in also parts of three mountain systems of the
European continent. The Ukraine is the only country of
Eastern Europe which extends over into the region of the
European mountains of plication. Parts of the Carpathians,
the little Yaila chain of Crimea, and the western parts of
the Caucasus lie, together with their environs, in Ukrain-
ian territory.
From this general survey of the surface configuration
of the Ukraine, we can easily see that more than nine-
tenths of the surface of this land is taken up by plains and
plateaus. Nine-tenths of the Ukrainians have certainly
never seen a mountain and do not even know what one
looks like. Expressive of this circumstance is the fact that
in the wide plateau and plain region of the Ukraine the
most insignificant hills bear the high-sounding name of
"mountain." But, despite this, the Ukraine also has its
share in the three mountain systems of Europe the Car-
pathians, the Yaila, and the Caucasus. All three were
formed thru plication of the rock-layers.
The vast plication-formed mountain range of the
Caucasus, even in the small part belonging to Ukrainian
territory, attains an alpine height ; the scenery of the Yaila
along the Crimean Riviera is wonderful, but the Carpath-
ians, altho not as lofty as the Caucasus and not of such
scenic beauty as the Yaila, are the dearest to the heart of
the Ukrainian. For the Ukrainian nation expanded in the
Caucasus only a century ago and has but just reached the
Yaila. And the Eastern Carpathians have for more than
a thousand years been a Ukrainian mountain range.
Still, hardly one-third of the 1300 km. curve of the
Carpathians belongs to Ukrainian national territory.
Toward the west the Carpathians are inhabited by
Poles and Slovaks; in the east and south by the Rou-
manians.
The boundary-posts of the Ukrainian territory extend
in the west beyond the famous defile of Poprad. From the
rounded peaks of the mountain country where the last
Ukrainian villages lie, one sees rising at a very short
distance the imposing range of the Tatra; still nearer lie
the cliffs of the Pienini, famous geologically as well as for
their scenery. In the eastern part of the Carpathian
chain, Ukrainian territory reaches the Prislop pass, which
connects the valleys of the Golden Bistritz and the Visheva
(Visso). To the Ukraine, then, belongs the sandstone
district of the Carpathians at that point where it is highest
and most developed. It is called simply the "wooded
Carpathians."
The western part of the sandstone Carpathians which
lies within Ukrainian territory is called the Low Beskid.
It is also known as Lemkivski Beskid because it is inhabited
by the Ukrainian mountain tribe of the Lemkes. The Low
Beskyd extends from the defile of Poprad to the valleys of
the Strviazh River, the Oslava (Lupkiv pass), and the
Laboretz. It is a broad -backed but not a' high mountain
country. In long chains, gently undulating mountain
ridges stretch from west to east and southeast. Their
slopes are gentle; one can easily walk or even ride up, and
numerous wagon-roads and highways lead straight over
the crest or even along the edge of the crest. The peaks are
rounded and of uniform height, except where an occasional
gently vaulted mountain top rises above the low-hill
country. Between gently sloping ranges there extend,
in a longitudinal direction, valleys with watersheds
and communicating passes. Broad, well-developed defiles
separate the range into different sections. The Galician-
Hungarian dividing-ridge has only slight gorges of genuine
mountain passes.
The peaks and high passes of the Lower Beskid are
insignificant. Only in the extreme west, on the Poprad and
the Torissa,do the peaks reach a height of 1000 and 1 100 m. ;
further toward the east hardly 700 to 800 m. The im-
portant Dukla Pass is hardly 500 m. above sea-level.
In the middle of the Beskid mountain country we even
see a great longish strip of lower country ("the Sianok
Lowlands") whose low hills are less than 300 m. high.
There is a connection between the insignificant height
and soft landscape forms of the Low Beskid and the
geological construction and evolution of the mountain
range. This mountain country, like the whole sandstone-
region of the Carpathians, is built up of strongly plicate
and compressed Flysch a series of sandstones slates,
conglomerates, clays, etc., of the cretacian and tertiary
ages. All these species of rock occur in this region in thin
layers and have little power of resistance; everywhere the
basic mountain ridge is covered with a thick coat of
weathering loam; rock piles are found very seldom. There
is added the fact that all the sandstone Carpathians of the
Ukrainian territory have been evened out by the destruc-
tive action of water and air into a more or less perfect
plain. Not until the quaternary was the "obliterated"
range raised anew and transformed into a mountain district
by the action of the rivers which were cutting in again.
The Low Beskid was once covered with great, mixed
forests. Now the once splendid virgin forests are completely
thinned and all the ill effects of forest destruction have
visited the poor mountain country. The fertile soil was
washed away on the mountain-sides and heaped up with
rubble and mud in the valley bottoms. The tribe of the
Lemkos is therefore, perhaps, the poorest of all the Ukrain-
ians and is compelled to seek an existence in distant lands.
In the southern part of the Low Beskid the boundaries
of the Ukrainian nation in Hungary reach the northern
part of the Hegyalia-Sovari Ridge, which, at this point, is
1100 m. high, and is composed of extinct trachyte volcanoes.
To the east of the Lupkiv Pass begins the second
section of the Ukrainian Carpathians the High Beskid.
It stretches to the southeast as far as the valleys of the
Stri, Opir and Latoritza Rivers (Pass of Verezki).
The High Beskid like the Low is composed of a number
of parallel, weakly joined mountain ranges, which run north-
west and southeast. The type of the Rost Mountains is,
therefore, even more clearly marked in this part of the
sandstone Carpathians than in the preceding. The
mountain crests are gently sloped, the edge of the crests
slightly curled, the height of the peaks constant, the
passes only walled passes. Toward the southeast, tho, the
ridge steadily increases in height. The highest peaks are
Halich (1335 m.), the beautifully pyramid-shaped rocky
Piku (1405 m.) and the massive Polonina ruvna (1480 m.).
In the Flysch of the High Beskid, two species of sand-
stone attain greater power of forming layers and of resisting
pressure the chiefly upper cretacian Yamna sandstone and
the oligocene Magura sandstone. The former forms
beautiful groups of rocks on peaks and precipices. The
cliffs of Noich, with its traces of a rock castle, are the most
famous.
The longitudinal valleys are much less developed in the
High Beskid than in the Low. They are traversed only
by smaller brooks. All larger streams like the Strviazh,
Dniester and Opir, flow thru well-formed passes. Expan-
sions of valleys (in regions of soft slate) alternate with
contractions of valleys (in regions of hard sandstone).
Most remarkable are the deeply cut out winding valleys
(San, Striy), which offer the best proof of the former
smoothing down and the later raising of the mountains.
Beautiful beech and evergreen forests still cover large
parts of the High Beskid. Above the tree-line(1200 1300m)
we meet for the first time with the characteristic plant-
formation of the Polonini (mountain pastures) which yield
excellent pasturage for large and small cattle during the
summer and create the foundation for a primitive dairy
industry.
Along the southern foot of the High Beskid, and separ-
ated from it by a chain of longitudinal valleys, a long
chain of mountains rises above the neighboring Hungarian
plain, bearing the name of Vihorlat (the Burnt Out).
The Rivers Uz (Ungh), Latorizia and Bershava, have cut
the Vihorlat into four sections. The range is lower than
the Beskyd, since it is less than 1100 m. high, but it is
strongly cut up by deep-gorged valleys, and has steep,
rocky precipices, bold rocky summits and pretty little
mountain lakes. The range, which is covered with thick
oak forests, owes its scenic character to its geological
composition. The Vyhorlat is a line of extinct volcanoes,
in the old craters of which the mountain lakes of the region
lie. The firm trachyte lava forms picturesque rock walls
and peaks. East of the Verezki Pass begins a new moun-
tain section, perhaps the most characteristic one in the
sandstone Carpathians. It extends toward the east as
far as the passes of the Prut and the Black Tyssa (Theiss)
and the Yablonitza Pass. This part of the sandstone
Carpathians bears the name of Gorgani.
The uniform mountain walls of the Beskid give way
here to shorter mountain ridges, strongly cut up by cross
valleys. The main streams of the northern slope, Opir,
Limnitza the two Bistritzas flow thru deep, picturesque
passes; still deeper are the valleys of the mountain streams
which flow into the Theiss, as the Torez, Talabor, etc.
It is a remarkable circumstance that the dividing border
ridge is lower than the ridges facing it on the north and
south, which are broken thru by magnificent passes.
The edge of the Gorgani ridge also shows traces of
the old leveling-surface and has only small gorges, yet it is
much more curled than in the Beskid. The ridge often
becomes a sharp edge and the cone-shaped peaks further
break its monotony. The height of the peaks is much
greater than in the Beskyd. On the Galician side the Popa-
dia attains a height of 1740 m.; Doboshanka, 1760 m.;
Visoka, 1810 m.; Sivula, 1820 m.; in Hungarian territory
the Stoh in the picturesque Bershavi group is 1680 m.;
the Blisnitza, in the Svidovez Range, 1890 m., etc.
The ridges and peaks of the Gorgani are covered with
seas of sandstone boulders and are, therefore, difficult of
access. The light gray Yamna sandstone, of great resisting
power, appears in this mountain section in very thick
layers, and is the cause of the greater height and the
bolder forms which, in places, are suggestive of high
mountain ranges. The energetic weathering process, aided
by the cover of winter snow, breaks up the mighty sand-
stone layers into great rocks, boulders, fragments and
rubble. Deep fissures yawn between moss and lichen-
covered boulders, many boulders rock under the foot of the
wanderer, and many of them, thru caving-in and thru
accumulation, have formed natural chambers and hollows.
The rocky ridges, covered with seas of boulders, are
Arshizia, the Gorgan peaks, whence comes the name of the
entire mountain range. The seas of boulders and rubble-
stone are called Zekit or Grekhit.
In the highest groups of the Gorgani Range (especially
in the Svidovetz) are found also distinct traces of the
glacial age, glacial excavations with small lakes or with
swamps that have taken the place of lakes.
A splendid, only slightly thinned dress of virgin forest
covers the Gorgani Chain. The lower forest section is
composed of beech, ash and fir trees, the upper part of
pines and stone-pines. The tree limit is very irregular
and vascillates between 1100 and 1600 m. Mountain
pastures are very rare, because of the seas of boulders
and rubble-stone, but there are large and beautiful, tho
not easily accessible, stocks of mountain pines.
The last section of the Ukrainian Carpathians is called
Chornohora (Black Mountains). It extends from the
Prut and the Black Theiss to the Prislop Pass; to the valley
of the Visheva and of the Golden Bistritza. In this wide
and long mountain district we find greater morphological
variety than in the mountain sections hitherto discussed.
In the wide zone of the northern foothills, which separate
with a distinct edge from the sub-Carpathian hills and
continue into the Bukowina, we find low ridges and
rounded peaks, as in the High Beskid. Only in places on
peaks and valley sides piles of rock are seen. Then
toward the interior of the range follows the wide vale of
Zabie, imbedded in soft slate, and above it rises the mighty
chain of the Chornohora, the only part of the sandstone
region of the Carpathians which has high mountain forma-
tions. The chain is composed of the hard magura sand-
stone, rich in mica. A whole stretch of peaks here attains
a height of 2000 m., the highest being the Hoverla(2058 m.).
Well-formed, partly rocky ribs branch off from the main
ridge on either side. The rock piles of the Shpitzi, Kisli
and Kisi Ulohy, are some of the most imposing rock forma-
tions of the Carpathian sandstone region. Between the
rocky ribs, finely developed glens lie on both sides of the
main ridge of the Chornohora, the beds of the ancient
glaciers. Waterfalls dash down the steep rock walls in
silver streams of particular interest is the cascade of the
Prut under the Hoverla and down below lie little crater
lakes reflecting the patches of summer snow on the crater
walls. Almost three-fourths of the year the Chornohoras
are covered with snow. In summer the snow almost
wholly disappears, and the beautiful carpet of flowers of
the mountain pastures, only occasionally interrupted
by dark green reserves of mountain-pine, spreads out over
the ridges and peaks of the Chornohora. Every summer
innumerable herds of cattle, small Hutzul horses and
sheep are seen here. Then an intensive dairy industry
enlivens the peak regions of the range for three months.
The lower regions are still covered with extensive forests;
in lower locations we find mixed forests here; in higher
altitudes, almost pure stocks of pines.
Standing on one of the Chornohora peaks, on the Hoverla
for instance, or the Petros or Pip Ivan, we see, in the near
southwest, a new and strange mountain world. It is
the third zone of the Chornohora Mountains, the mountain
land of Marmarosh. Situated in the region of the headwaters
of the Theiss and orographically related to the Chornohora,
the mountains of the Marmarosh are of entirely different
geological composition and have a different morphological
appearance. Gneiss and other kinds of crystalline slate,
permotriassic and Jurassic conglomerates and limestones,
as well as eruptive rock of older and of more recent date,
lend great geological and morphological variety to the
Marmarosh Mountains. The high mountain character
here is even more marked than in the Chornohoras.
Rocky peaks, ridges, mountain walls, numerous craters,
with small glacial lakes, adorn the Marmarosh mountains,
which rise higher than 1900 m. : Pip Ivan, Farko, Mikhalek,
Petros, Troiaga. Toward the southeast the range wanders
over into South Bukowina, where its last boundary-posts,
the rocky peaks of Yumalen and Raren really stand on
Roumanian ground. And in the south, beyond the Visheva
Valley, which divides the settlements of the Ukrainian
Hutzuls from those of the Roumanians, rises the magnificent
lofty rampart of the Rodna Mountains, with its two
peaks of 2300 m., Pietrosu and Ineu.
On the outside of the Carpathian curve stretches a hill
country of varying breath, the sub-Carpathian hill-country,
in Ukrainian: Pidhirye or Pidkarpatye. The mountain-
edge of the Carpathian, which is at all points very distinct,
rises steeply over the low-hill country at the foot, along an
extended line in the neighborhood of the cities of Peremishl,
Sambir, Drohobich, Striy, Kolomia. The Carpathian
rivers leave the mountains by way of funnel-shaped valleys,
bordered by boulder terraces, and spread their alluvial
mounds over the low hill country. Wide stretches of
meadow accompany the river courses; fields and woodland
lie at a distance. The sub-Carpathian hill-country is
built up of miocene gray clays which, along the edge of the
Carpathians, contain an enormous treasure of petroleum,
ozokerite, kitchen salt and potash salts. Boulders lie on
the clay, not only along the rivers, but also on the hilltops
traces of old watercourses, which transported Carpathian
and northern rubble-stone toward the east in the direction
of the Dniester. The yellowish cover of loam and loess
lies over the whole, and its surface-layer, abounding in
vegetable soil, is, in places, very fertile.
The sub-Carpathian hill country reaches to the two
sub-Carpathian plains in the north the Vistula and the
Dniester Plain. Only along the European main divide a
tongue of hill-country projects in the direction of Lemberg.
In the glacial period, watercourses of great volume flowed
directly across this hill-country divide, which, as might be
expected, is now completely cleft by the bifurcation of the
Vishnia, depositing considerable masses of rubble-stone
and sand. Thru destruction of forests, the sands have
become subject to wind action and dreary landscapes of
sand-dunes have been formed.
Only the southeastern reaches of the Vistula Plain,
extending along the San River to Peremishl are part of
Ukrainian territory. The low loam bags, which lie between
sandy and swampy valleys of the San, form the only rises
of ground in this plain, which borders in the northeast on
the spurs of the Rostoch.
The Dniester Plain extends in a broad ribbon along the
river from the place where it leaves the mountains to the
delta of the Striy. Its western part is a single great swamp
region, a one-time large lake. The rivers flow on flat
dams, and when the melting snows come and the rains of
early summer, they overflow their banks and flood the
swampy plains far and near. In some years the swamp
region changes into a lake for days and weeks. In the
dry season only a few swamp lakes remain, but the entire
region remains a swamp and produces only a poor sour
hay. Settlements lie only on the high banks of the rivers.
The eastern part of the Dniester Plain extends beyond
the great alluvial mounds of the Striy River, and then
reaches over into the broad valley of the Dniester, which
ends in the Podolian Plateau at the point where the river
enters. The eastern Dniester Plain is not very swampy,
and only in places do ravines, swamps, and old river beds
accompany the river course. For the most part pretty
meadows, fields and woods lie on the thick sub-layer of
rubble-stone and river-loam.
If the Carpathians represent a primeval section of
Ukrainian ground, the mountain ranges of Crimea and the
Caucasus were entirely strange to the Ukrainians not so
very long ago. How many Ukrainian slaves, in the time
of Tartar oppression, cursed the rocky-wall of the Yaila
which separated them from their beloved home. How
discontented was the enslaved remainder of the Zaporogs
when transported to the Western Caucasus.
Now the conditions are quite changed. The great
colonizing movement of the Ukrainians touched the Yaila
as much as twenty years ago, and has extended the frontiers
of the Ukrainian settlements along the outer mountains of
the Caucasus to the Caspian Sea. And the once strange,
hostile mountain-worlds have opened their doors to
Ukrainian colonization.
The Yaila Mountains of Crimea are, in comparison with
the Carpathians, a small mountain system hardly 150 km.
long and 35 km. wide. They lie in three parallel ranges,
separated by longitudinal valleys, along the southeast
shores of the peninsula. The northern declivities of all the
ridges are gently sloping, the southern ones steep. The
southern main range exceeds a height of 1500 m. with its
peaks, Chatirdagh, Roman-chosh, and Demir Kapu.
This main ridge, which declines toward the sea in steep
precipices, is flat and rocky on top, strewn with rock-
craters ; it bears the name Yaila and serves as a lean moun-
tain pasture. Deep gorges cut the rough surface of the
summit and divide it into single table mountains.
The mountains of Crimea, like the Carpathians, are
mountains of plication. They are composed of Jurassic,
chalk, and miocene-layers. The large blocks of lime of the
Jurassic, which rest on softer slates and clays, form the main
ridge of the mountains. Besides craters, we find, in the
limestone mountains of the Yaila, impassable furrows
(German Karrenbildungen) and numerous hollows.
Very picturesque is the magnificent precipitous decline
of the main range of the Yaila to the sea. Here the entire
southern part of the range has sunk in great ravines and
the resisting power of the eruptive rocks which appear here
has created a coastal mountain landscape of great beauty.
Protected by the mountain wall from northerly winds, a
Mediterranean flora has been able to develop here at the
southern foot of the range, while beautiful leafy forests
partly cover the declines of the mountains.
On the peninsula of Kerch, which forms the eastern
extreme of Crimea, a low steppe-like hill-country extends
seemingly as a prolongation of the Yaila Range. The
new tertiary clays are here laid in flat folds, which are more
closely related to the Caucasus. Here, and on the quite
similarly formed Taman peninsula, we find many small
cone-shaped mud volcanoes which emit gases, smoke, and
thinly flowing blue-gray mud from their miniature craters.
The magnificent lofty range of the Caucasus forms the
boundary-post of the Ukraine on the east. Only the
western part of the mountain system lies within Ukrainian
territory. We shall, therefore, discuss it quite briefly.
The Caucasian Mountain system, which is 1100 km. in
length, lies like a huge wall of rock between Europe and
Asia. Most geographers consider the Caucasus as part of
the latter continent, which is correct in so far as these
mountains show many characteristics of Asiatic mountain
ranges. First of all they are hard to cross, much harder than
the highest mountains of Europe, the Alps. Along a
stretch of 700 km., the ridge of the Caucasus descends only
twice to a level of 3000 m. On the other hand; the Caucasus
is not wide on the average only 150 km. and at the
point where the Grusinian army road crosses the range,
barely 60 km. Then, the Caucasus, like many mountain
ranges of Asia, stretches in a straight line from the peninsula
of Taman to the peninsula of Apsheron, famous for its
abundance of petroleum.
The Caucasus is a plication-formed mountain range
composed of folded crystalline and sedimentary rock of
varying ages. Along huge ravines, the entire southern part
of the range has sunk down, so that the highest crystalline
central zone of the range declines directly and very steeply
toward the south. The highest Caucasus peaks are old
extinct volcanoes, set over the basic mountains; the Elbruss
(5630 m.), at the source of the Kuban and the Kasbek
(5040 m.), at the source of the Terek. Proof that the
subterranean powers are still active are the numerous
tectonic earthquakes of Transcaucasia.
The main chain of the Caucasus possesses, besides
the volcano peaks, many rocky granite peaks 4000 5000
m. in height, and, besides these, hundreds of lower peaks,
all of which find their counterparts in the Alps. The present
glaciation of the Caucasus is very considerable, while
that of the glacial period was also very extensive and
determined the present mountain forms of the Caucasus.
Only the most beautiful ornament of the one-time glacial
landscape is lacking in the Caucasus the lakes, which
are so abundant in the Alps.
All the larger Caucasus rivers rise as milky glacial
brooks in the main range. Then, by way of deep cross-
valleys, they break thru the lower ranges, which face the
main ridge in several rows, and are composed of sedi-
mentary rock formations of Jurassic, cretaceous, and old-
tertiary age. Their crests and peaks become constantly
lower and more rounded toward the north. Beautiful
mountain pastures and thick virgin forests, full of animals
that may be hunted, cover the mountains.
In the country at the foot of the Caucasus, a low hill-
region is spread, which consists mainly of new- tertiary
layers abounding in petroleum. At the Ponto-Caspian
divide, the hill-district and plateau of Piatihorsk and
Stavropol, which is composed of recent lime formations,
projects from the Caucasus. From a height of 600 m. this
structure declines slowly in flat hills toward the west,
north and east to the Ponto-Caspian steppe-plain, in
which lies the famous Manich Furrow. The Manich, or
rather Calaus River rises like the Kuma in the Plateau of
Stavropol and separates, in the Furrow, into two branches.
The one flows thru extended Manich lakes toward the
northeast into the Don River, and, incidentally, into the
Sea of Azof; the other turns toward the south to the Kuma
River and the Caspian Sea. But its waters reach this goal
very rarely; the burning sun and the sandy soil- of the
Caspian steppe rob the little river of its small supply of
water.
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