The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

3GGRUSSIA IN EUEOrE.equal volume, and historically even more important than the main stream. TheOka, which long served as the frontier between Tatar and Muscovite, rises in thercnon of the " black lands," and throughout a course of 900 miles waters themost fertile plains of Great Russia, bringing to the Nijni fair the produce of Orol,Kaluga, Tula. Biazan, Tambov, Vladimir, and Moscow. Over 1,440 yards broad,it seems like an arm of the sea at its confluence with the Volga. East of thispoint the main artery is swollen by other tributaries, which, though as large asthe Seine, seem insignificant compared with the mighty Kama, joining it belowKazan from the Urals, and draining an area at least equal in extent to the wholeof France. Judging from the direction of its course, the Kama seems to be themain stream, for below the junction the united rivers continue the southerly andsouth-westerly course of the Kama, whose clear waters flow for some distancebefore intermingling with the grey stream of the Volga. Below Simbirsk theFig. 103.Tremrlixg Forests neak Xijxi-Novgorod.Sand and Clay.tributaries are few and unimportant, and as the rainfall is here also slight, and theevaporation considerable, the mean discharge is probably as great at this place asat the delta.Below the Kama junction there formerly existed a vast lacustrine basin, whichhas been gradually filled in by the alluvia of both streams. Here is the naturallimit of the peat region, and here begins, on the right bank, that of the steppes.As we proceed southwards the atmosphere becomes less humid, the ground firmer,and below Simbirsk we no longer meet those mossy and wooded quagmires boundtogether by the tangled roots of trees, resembling matted cordage. But even inthe boggy districts those floating forests are slowly disappearing as the land isbrought more and more under cultivation.Below the dried-up Simbirsk Lake the stream is deflected by an impassablelimestone barrier eastwards to Samara, where it escapes through a breach andreverses its course along the southern escarpment of the hills, thus forming a long