' As an inland city, Kiev has the finest site in Russia. Standing on a range of bluffs, she overlooks a splendid length of steppe, a broad and navigable stream. She is the port and capital of the Ukraine, and the Malo- Russians, whether settled on the Don, the Ural, or the Dnieper, look to her for orders of the day. She touches Poland with her right hand, Russia with her left; she flanks Galicia and Moldavia, and keeps her front towards the Bulgarians, the Montenegrins, and the Serbs. In her races and religon she is much in little; an epitome of all the Sclavonic tribes. One-third of her population is Muscovite, one-third Russian, and one-third Polack; while in faith she is Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and United Greek. If any city in Europe offers herself to Pansclavonic dreamers as their natural capital, it is Kiev.'
In M. Polytaiefs account of forests on the Dnieper, embodied in a preceding chapter, is given [ante pp. 187-190] information in regard to the forests of the government.
One of my correspondents, writing to me some years since, stated that shortly before he had had a conversation with a German land steward, from the neighbourhood of Kiev, who had the charge of a number of estates in that locality, and that in reference to the injury and loss to a country resulting from the clearing away of forests, he said the climate in that district had changed much for the worse, and that he attributed the recurring famines from which the people suffered, and the bad harvests of which they complained, in a great measure to aridity of soil and climate, consequent on the extensive cutting down of the woods. Of the Russian landholders, he said they were so improvident, and so reckless of the morrow, that it was difficult to induce them to plant trees which will not attain their full growth till some 170 years hence. And he alleged that there was no hope of the evil being counteracted, excepting in so far as necessary measures might be undertaken and carried out by the government.
Pinkerton epitomising a journey made by him from
Odessa to Orel, writes: — ' The appearance of the country from Odessa to Nicholaief is flat and woodless. Near Elizabethgrad several ravines produce some little variety on the surface, but few trees of any kind are to be seen; and this bald uninteresting scene continues as far as Kiev, though with rather more undulations on the surface of the country as we approach the banks of the Dnieper. Those about Kiev may be styled hills; and are formed by the torrents that flow into the above-mentioned river, creating in their course a number of ravines. After crossing the Dnieper at Kiev, the country continues level the whole way to Orel, except here and there a few gently rising slopes; but there is extremely little wood, though the scenery is not quite so barren as that south of the Dnieper. Here there is little variety of prospect, therefore, to amuse the traveller excepting the common appearances of a regular Russian winter, the blue expanse of heaven above, with the woodless snow-clad earth beneath, and the clear pale powerless lunar-like rays of the sun shed over it; spotted with hamlets and villages, often at many miles distance from each other, and nearly concealed from view by winters revengeful robe; now and then a chain of sledges traverses the scene, and at the twilight seems to be moving in the air, so singularly does the united line of snow and sky deceive the eye of the beholder; or perhaps the sound of a fellow-travellers bell is heard tinkling, as he draws near. This precaution is adopted to prevent accidents in the night, as the movement of the sledge upon the snow, like that of a ship upon the sea, gives no indication of its approach.'
Such is the monotonous scenery which presents itself to the traveller in Russia everywhere during winter, But the intensity of the cold, and its invigorating effects upon animal life, seems to make every living creature to move with greater celerity; and in general 1 have observed the Russians give greater demonstrations of joy at the commencement of winter than at the opening of spring.
PART IV.
IN M. Polytaief s account of forests on the Dnieper, it is stated that from the government of Volhinia the forest produce is sent to Riga and Prussia, with which there is river communication.
Lithuania is situated on the water shed between the valleys of the Black Sea and the Baltic; the Ukraine is situated entirely on the former; Poland almost entirely on the latter. While much of the timber yielded by these countries is conveyed by the Dnieper to the south of Russia, and much of what is produced by Lithuania and Poland is conveyed to Central Europe by rail, much also is exported from Dantzig, Konigsberg, Memel, and Riga. From Poland much of the timber is conveyed by the Vistula to Dantzig.