The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

THE STEPPES. 270Even lakes Lave completely evaporated, and saline incrustations become more andmore extensive.In many places the people say tLat their wells Lave gradually rundry, or else become brackish, obliging tLeni toabandon gardensand orchards which they wereformerly able to irrigate abundantly. TLe riverTiligul, now lost in tLe liman of like namebefore reacLing tLe coast, formerly turned tLewheels of fifteen mills above Ananyev, of whichone only existed in 1865, and tLat idle for a partof tLe year. Even in 1823 this river is stillrepresented on a military chart as entering thesea by a wide mouth, where is now an elevatedisthmus crossed by tLe post road between Nikolayevand Odessa.Tbis increasing saline cLaracterof tLe steppe seems mainly due to tLe destructionof tLe forests on tLe uplands, augmenting tLeevaporation on tLe surface waters, and drying uptLe Lead-streams of tLe great rivers. As says tLeFig. 136.-Pool surrounded bya Village.o Wells.1 JIil.-.local proverb, " When man comes tLe water goes." TLe same pLenomenonFig. 137.— Village in a Ravine near Yekaterlnoslav.Scale 1 : 220,000.C.ofGWells. Farmsteads. Kurgans._——-— 2 Miles.is observed in a far wider area than on the Russian steppes, as sLown by theold river beds of the Dobruja and Rumania, now almost dried up.u 2