The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

THE VOLGA DELTA.3G7narrow peninsula projecting from the western plateau. Here is the mostpicturesque scenery on the Volga, which is now skirted hy steep wooded cliffs,terminating in pyramids and sharp rocky peaks. Some of the more inaccessiblesummits are surmounted by the so-called "Stenka" kurgans, raised in memory ofRazin, Chief of the Cossacks and revolted peasantry, who had established themselvesin this natural stronghold-Steep Banks op the Middle Volga.of the Volga. The hills oftenrise more than 300 feet abovethe stream, the Beliy Kluch,south-west of Sizran, attainingan absolute elevation of 1,155feet, or 1,120 feet above themean level of the Volga.Scale 1 : 7.000,000.The Volga Delta.The region of the delta reallybegins at the Tzaritzin bend,some 300 miles from the Caspian,for the stream here branches intocountless channels between thebeds of the Volga and theAkhtuba, known near the coastas the Bereket. Still the delta,properly so called, is formed onlyabout 30 miles above Astrakhan,by the forking of the Buzanbranch from the main bed. NearAstrakhan the Balda and Kutitm,and, lower down, the Tzarova,Tzagan, Birul, and other arms,break away, and in the vast alluvialpeninsula projecting into theCaspian, and which is at least110 miles round, there are altogetherabout two hundredmouths, most of them, however,shifting streams choked with mud.The chronicler Nestor speaks ofseventy mouths, and there are at present about fifty regular channels. Duringthe spring floods all the delta and the lower course below Tzaritzin form one vastbody of moving waters, broken only by a few islands here and there, and aftereach of these floods new beds are formed, old ones filled up, so that the chart of thedelta has to be constantly planned afresh. Even the main beds get displaced.