The course of one of these steppe-fires is often most capricious. It will leave a track of country uninjin-ed, and travel for eight or ten days into the inteiior, and the farmer whose land has been left untouched will begin to flatter himself with the belief that his corn and his cattle are safe ; but all at once the foe returns with renewed vigour, and the scattered farmhouses, with the ricks of hay and corn grouped in disorder around, fiill a prey to the remorseless destroyer. The farmer, however, is not without his consolation on these occasions. The ashes of the herbag-e form an excellent manure for the ground, and the next crops invariably repay him a portion of his loss. Indeed, so beneficial is the effect, that many of the large proprietors subject their land regularly every four or five years to tlie process of burning ; but the operation is then performed with much caution, wide trenches being first dug around the space within which it is intended that the fire should remain confined.
To the same process likewise are subjected the forests of reeds by which all the rivers of the steppe are fi-inged, but this is deemed so dangerous, that the law imposes banishment to Siberia as the penalty of the offence. Nevertheless, there are few places where the reeds are not regularly burnt away each returning spring, at wliich season, during the night, the Dnieper and Dniester appear to be converted into rivers of fire. There are two motives for setting light to the reeds, and these motives are powerful enough to completely neutralize the dread of Siberia : in the fii-st place, the reeds serve as a cover to multitudes of wolves, which, when diiven by the fire either into the water or into the open plain, are easily destroyed by their remorseless enemies, the shepherds and herdsmen. The second motive is, the hope of obtaining a better supply of young reeds by destroying the old ones. The reeds, it must be borne in mind, are of great value in the steppe, where, in the absence of timber and stones, they form the chief material for building.
The animal is not more varied than the vegetable kingdom ; and both, to the naturalist, seem poor, though to the less scientific observer the steppe appears to be teeming with life. Uniformity, in fact, is more or less the distinguishing characteristic of the country, and the same want of variety that marks its outward features, prevails throughout every class of its animate and inanimate productions ; but though few the species, the masses in which each presents itself are surprising. Eagles, \ailtures, hawks, and other birds, that are elsewhere rarely seen except singly, make their appearance on the steppe in large flights. The reed-gromids fairly teem with ducks, geese, and pelicans ; the grass is alive with swarms of little earth-hares ; larks, pigeons, thrushes, rooks, and plovers, are met with everywhere ; and even butterflies, and other insects, appear in formidable masses. Among the latter, the locust, of which we shaU have more to say by-and-by, plays a very important part. Few of these animals can be said to be peculiar to the steppe, but though found in other lands, they are not found there under similar circumstances, and the peculiar character of the country exercises a powerful influence in modifying the habits and instinct of animals.