The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

TEE CHEENOZOM, OR BLACK LANDS.2C9Dnieper south of Jitomir, and beyond (lie Dnieper to the Sea of Azov, from whichit is separated by a narrow belt of soft tertiary sandstone. East of Jitomir thisgranitic zone, 4S0 miles in length, scarcely crops out anywhere above the surface.The relief of the land has naturally Lad much to do with the distribution ofplants and animals as well as with the vicissitudes of the surrounding populations,tbough their destinies have been chiefly affected by tbe nature of the soil. Muchof the large river basins and their affluents belongs to the Chernozom zone, thegeneral aspect of the country differing entirely on each side of its limits. In thenorth stretches the region of erratic boulders, of forests, lakes, and marshes ;inthe south lies the " black land," where timber is cultivated.The " Black Lands."— The Steppes.The black lands are normally composed of three-fourths or four-fifths sand,containing, besides the alkalies, ammonia, potash, soda, phosphoric acid, a largeproportion of organic matter, amounting to one-tenth in the upper layers, but inPoltava and some other places as much as 17 per cent., gradually diminishinglower down to about 5 per cent. The Chernozom is composed entirely ofvegetable humus, nor have any salt or fresh water shells been found whichmight suggest the presence of alluvia. About Sednev, near Chernigov, there arescattered s ime 800 funereal mounds consisting of pure sand, yet already covered onthe surface with a layer of black earth 6 to 8 inches deep. These moundsdate traditionally from the destruction of Chernigov by Baty Khan in 1239 ;the remains show that they are at least three hundred years older. Hence overnine hundred years have been required to develop the layer of vegetable matternow covering them. Allowing a similar rate for the plains, the Chernozom layersfrom 2 to 5 feet deep would have taken from three to six thousand years in theirformation. But however this may be, the black earth is sharply limited southand east by the old marine beds, and near the Sea of Azov and the Euxine thethickness of the strata is in direct relation with the elevation of the land abovesea-level. The vegetable humus increases in depth the longer the coast has beenupheaved. In the south-east and east its limit is marked by the shores of thesteppes formerly flooded by the Caspian, and in the north by the lacustrine andmarshy region strewn with erratic granite boulders brought down by the glaciersfrom Finland and Scandinavia. The belt of black land thus stretches southwestand north-east like an isthmus between the Carpathians and Urals, andthrough it "Western Europe was formerly connected with Asia. North of itthere are a few isolated patches of black soil in the governments of Viatka,Kazan, A'ladimir, and Chernigov.The black region comprises about one-third of European Russia, with anapproximate area of 23-5,500,000 acres, and the same formation stretches westwardsinto Moldavia, Hungary, and especially the Banat, though it is nowhere moreextensive or deeper than in the Dnieper basin. Herrmann has compared thesedeposits of black earth to the English coal measures, with the advantage of lyingbut