Russia | Page 5

in summer. The
undulations are scarcely apparent to the eye as it takes in a wide
prospect under a blazing sun and with a deep-blue sky overhead. Not a
tree is to be seen, the few woods and thickets being hidden in the
depressions and deep valleys of the rivers. On the thick sheet of black
earth by which the Steppe is covered a luxuriant vegetation develops in
spring; after the old grass has been burned a bright green covers
immense stretches, but this rapidly disappears under the burning rays of
the sun and the hot easterly winds. The colouring of the Steppe changes
as if by magic, and only the silvery plumes of the kovyl (Stipa pennata)
wave under the wind, giving the Steppe the aspect of a bright, yellow
sea. For days together the traveller sees no other vegetation; even this,
however, disappears as he nears the regions recently left dry from the
Caspian, where salted clays covered with a few Salsolaceœ, or mere
sands, take the place of the black earth. Here begins the Aral-Caspian
desert. The Steppe, however, is not so devoid of trees as at first sight
appears. Innumerable clusters of wild cherries, wild apricots, and other
deep-rooted shrubs grow in the depressions of the surface, and on the
slopes of the ravines, giving the Steppe that charm which manifests
itself in popular poetry. Unfortunately, the spread of cultivation is fatal
to these oases (they are often called "islands" by the inhabitants); the
axe and the plough ruthlessly destroy them. The vegetation of the

poimy and zaimischas in the marshy bottoms of the ravines, and in the
valleys of streams and rivers, is totally different. The moist soil gives
free development to thickets of various willows, bordered with dense
walls of worm-wood and needle-bearing Composita, and interspersed
with rich but not extensive prairies harbouring a great variety of
herbaceous plants; while in the deltas of the Black Sea rivers
impenetrable masses of rush shelter a forest fauna. But cultivation
rapidly changes the physiognomy of the Steppe. The prairies are
superseded by wheat-fields, and flocks of sheep destroy the true
steppe-grass (Stipa-pennata), which retires farther east.
The Circum-Mediterranean Region is represented by a narrow strip of
land on the south coast of the Crimea, where a climate similar to that of
the Mediterranean coast has permitted the development of a flora
closely resembling that of the valley of the Arno.
[Illustration: REVEL]
The fauna of European Russia does not very materially differ from that
of western Europe. In the forests not many animals which have
disappeared from western Europe have held their ground; while in the
Urals only a few--now Siberian, but formerly also European--are met
with. On the whole, Russia belongs to the same zoo-geographical
region as central Europe and northern Asia, the same fauna extending
in Siberia as far as the Yenisei and Lena. In south-eastern Russia,
however, towards the Caspian, we find a notable admixture of Asiatic
species, the deserts of that part of Russia belonging in reality rather to
the Aral-Caspian depression than to Europe.
For the zoo-geographer only three separate sub-regions appear on the
East-European plains--the tundras, including the Arctic islands, the
forest region, especially the coniferous part of it, and the Ante-Steppe
and Steppes of the black-earth region. The Ural mountains might be
distinguished as a fourth sub-region, while the south-coast of the
Crimea and Caucasus, as well as the Caspian deserts, have their own
individuality.
As for the adjoining seas, the fauna of the Arctic Ocean off the

Norwegian coast corresponds, in its western parts at least, to that of the
North Atlantic Gulf Stream. The White Sea and the Arctic Ocean to the
east of Svyatoi Nos belong to a separate zoological region connected
with, and hardly separable from, that part of the Arctic Ocean which
extends along the Siberian coast as far as to about the Lena. The Black
Sea, of which the fauna was formerly little known but now appears to
be very rich, belongs to the Mediterranean region, slightly modified,
while the Caspian partakes of the characteristic fauna inhabiting the
lakes and seas of the Aral-Caspian depression.
In the region of the tundras life has to contend with such unfavourable
conditions that it cannot be abundant. Still the reindeer frequents it for
its lichens, and on the drier slopes of the moraine deposits four species
of lemming, hunted by the Canis lagopus, find quarters. Two species of
the white partridge, the lark, one Plectrophanes, two or three species of
Sylvia, one Phylloscopus, and the Motacilla must be added.
Numberless aquatic birds, however, visit it for breeding purposes.
Ducks, divers, geese, gulls, all the Russian species of snipes and
sandpipers, etc., cover the marshes of the tundras, or the crags of the
Lapland coast.
The forest region, and