. The earth and its inhabitants .. . HE lands draining to the Sea of Azov form no sharply defined region, with bold natural frontiers and distinct populations. The sources of the Don and its head-streams intermingle with those of the Volga and Dnieper—some, like the Medveditza, flowing even for some distance parallel with the Volga. As in the Dnieper and Dniester valleys, the " black lands " and bare steppes here also follow each other successively as we proceed southwards, while the population naturally- diminishes in density in the same direction. The land is occupied in the north
. The earth and its inhabitants .. . HE lands draining to the Sea of Azov form no sharply defined region, with bold natural frontiers and distinct populations. The sources of the Don and its head-streams intermingle with those of the Volga and Dnieper—some, like the Medveditza, flowing even for some distance parallel with the Volga. As in the Dnieper and Dniester valleys, the " black lands " and bare steppes here also follow each other successively as we proceed southwards, while the population naturally- diminishes in density in the same direction. The land is occupied in the north and east by the Great Russians, westward by the Little Russians, in the south and in New Russia by colonies of every race and tongue, rendering this region a sort of common territory, where all the peoples of the empire except the Finns are represented. Owing to the great extent of the steppes, the population is some- what less dense than in the Dnieper basin and Central Russia, but it is yearly and rapidly increasing. The various eocene, chalk, and Devonian formations of Central Russia are continued in the Don basin, as the granite zone forming the bed of the Bug and Dnieper is similarly prolonged south-eastwards to the neighbourhood of the Sea of Azov. But here are also vast coal measures, offering exceptional advantages which cannot fail to attract large populations towards the banks of the Donetz. The Don, the root of which is probably contained in its Greek name Tanais, is one of the great European rivers, if not in the volume of its waters, at least in the length of its course, with its windings some 1,335 miles altogether. Rising in a lakelet in the government of Tula, it flows first southwards to its junction with the nearly parallel Voronej, beyond which point it trends to the south-east, and even eastwards, as if intending to reach the Volga. After being enlarged by the Khopor and Medveditza, it arrives within 45 miles of that river, above which it has a mean elevat
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade18, booksubjectgeography, bookyear1883
