The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

280 RUSSIA IX EUROPE.Iii the coast steppes permanent wells and springs are represented only byintermittent meres or pools flooded during the rains, and overgrown with sedgeand reeds. In other low-lying grounds called padi, though there is no permanentsupply, there is moisture enough to support a coarse vegetation, while wells sunk50 or GO feet afford a brackish water barely suitable for cattle. Owing tothis scarcity of water, most of the villages and farmsteads stretch for miles innarrow belts along the line of pools, wells, and intermittent streams. Duringthe heavy rains the river beds are again flooded, often threatening destruction tothe hamlets built in the ravines, and138.— Granite Ravines West of the Dnieper.Scale 1 : 510,000.E.if'P ,27 "40s Miles.yearly carrying down to the coastlimans vast quantities of rich soil,whereby the land becomes more andmore denuded. Sudden downpourshave in a single hour utterly ruinedproductive land for hundreds ofyards, and the erosive action of thewater has furrowed deep ravineseven in the granitic region west ofthe Dnieper.Of the numerous limans fed bythe inland streams two only betweenthe Dniester and Danube have preservedtheir permanent communicationswith the sea—that of Berezan,a little west of Ochakov, and thatof the Dniester. The south-westcoast, skirting the now land-lockedsalt lakes of Burnas, Alibey,Shagani,Kuuduk, is broken at one point only,and even this inlet shifts with therains and storms. The shoals andsiltings now blocking the limanshave by some been attributed to ageneral upheaval of the coast, atheory it would be useless to discussin the absence of systematic observationsalong the seaboard. After 1< ingdroughts the surface of the limans is lower than that of the Euxine ; in springtheir level is raised and their saline character diminished by the influx of freshwater. But they still in many respects resemble the sea from which they havebut recently been cut off. That of Kuuduk yields a considerable quantity of salt,and in 1826 as much as 96,000 tons was extracted from the three largestBessarabian lagoons. But others farther west have become quite fresh, havingbeen separated from the sea for thousands of years. Some are deep enough to