The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

CHAPTER X.BASIN OF THE DON.-SEA OF AZOV.(Governments of Vokonej and Kharkov.— Territory of the Don Cossacks.)HE lands draining to the Sea of Azov form no sharply definedregion, with hold natural frontiers and distinct populations.Thesources of the Don and its head-streams intermingle with those ofthe Volga and Dnieper—some, like the Medveditza, flowing evenfor some distance parallel with the Volga. As in the Dnieper andDniester valleys, the " black lands " and bare steppes here also follow eachother successively as we proceed southwards, while the population naturallydiminishes in density in the same direction. The land is occupied in the northand east by the Great Russians, westward by the Little Russians, in the southand in New Rxissia by colonies of every race and tongue, rendering this region asort of common territory, where all the peoples of the empire except the Finnsare represented.Owing to the great extent of the steppes, the population is somewhatless dense than in the Dnieper basin and Central Russia, but it is yeai-lyand rapidly increasing.The various eocene, chalk, and Devonian formations of Central Russia arecontinued in the Don basin, as the granite zone forming the bed of the Bugand Dnieper is similarly prolonged south-eastwards to the neighbourhood ofthe Sea of Azov. But here are also vast coal measures, offering exceptionaladvantages which cannot fail to attract large populations towards the banks ofthe Donetz.The Don, the root of which is probably contained in its Greek name Tanai's, isone of the great European rivers, if not in the volume of its waters, at least in thelength of its course, with its windings some 1,335 miles altogether. Rising in alakelet in the government of Tula, it flows first southwards to its junction withthe nearly parallel Voronej, beyond which point it trends to the south-east, andeven eastwards, as if intending to reach the Volga. After being enlarged by theKhopor and Medveditza, it arrives within 45 miles of that river, above which ithas a mean elevation of 138 feet.Its banks, like those of the Volga, present thenormal appearance, the right being raised and steep, while the left has already