The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

308 RUSSIA IN EUROrE.was one of their chief centres of action, and it was here that they decided, in 1654,to transfer their allegiance to the Czar Alexis of Muscovy. The river wasformerly navigable, as shown by an anchor found in its alluvium ; but the presentport has been removed some 4 miles westward to Andrushi, on a winding ofthe Dnieper. But in this section of the river the chief port is the old Cherkasi, ona bluff projecting from its right bank. On the left bank stands the town ofGradysk, facing the old Polish castle of Krilov, in 1821 renamed Noro-Georgiyevsk.It does a considerable trade in timber and live stock, and is surrounded by aFig. 159.—The Tasmin- Marsh.Scale 1 : 500,000.C.rfP.district teeming with historic memories, but now occupied by the vast estates ofthe Russian and Polish nobles, with their palaces and beet-sugar factories.In the Sula basin, comprising a large portion of "West Poltava, there are severalimportant places, mostly surrounded by orchards and tobacco plantations.Amongst them are Romni, at whose annual fair £320,000 worth of goods aresold ; Ncdriga'ilor, founded early in the seventeenth century by ITkranian refugees ;and Luhni, with numerous tanneries and gardens. Larger than the Sula is thePsol, watering the three governments of Kursk, Kharkov, and Poltava, and aftera course of 320 miles joining the Dnieper just below Kremenchug. In its basinare the towns of Olshanka, with some large boot factories and distilleries ; Oboyan,an agricultural centre ; Sumi, a trading place whose exchanges amount to about£400,000 yearly ; Lebedin, where Peter the Great made his preparations for thebattle of Poltava, and where his friend Menshikov cut the throats of 900