In presenting the general influence of the ground formation on the people, we must also consider the anthropogeographical significance of the geological conditions of the country. They should not be underestimated, as one might expect, while to overestimate them, as some scholars have done, by even referring anthropological characteristics back to the geological composition of the country, is quite as bad; at all events very many of the living conditions of the inhabitants are dependent upon the geological make-up of the land. We shall skip over the great importance of the geological composition of the country for the surface formations which it determines. We shall pay attention only to the direct geological influences. The Ukraine possesses very great mineral treasures. The most important mineral deposits for the present time, namely, coal, iron, salt and petroleum, are very large in the Ukraine. Of all these mineral treasures, however, only the salt deposits have had an historical significance, since far back in the period of the Kingdoms of Kiev and Halich they furthered active trade and commerce, and later favored the development of the Chumak organization. The other mineral treasure attained a greater importance only in the past century. When one considers today that [226]the Ukraine furnishes almost three-fourths of the coal and iron output of Russia, one can readily believe that the Ukraine might some day become as great an industrial country as Germany, England or Belgium. A single glance at the mining map of the Ukraine soon shows us, however, how small the regions containing this abundance of mineral wealth are in proportion to the entire territory. Then everyone can understand what the geological composition of the country means. It condemns the Ukraine forever to remain an agricultural country, altho it also permits the development of a considerable industry in several centers. The same path of future development is outlined for the Ukraine by its fertile soil. Almost three-fourths of the Ukrainian territory lies within the Eastern European black-earth zone. The chornozyom, one of the most fertile species of earth on the globe, makes the Ukraine the most fruitful land of Europe. We need not wonder, therefore, that the Ukrainians have, to this day, remained almost entirely an agricultural people. The fertility of the soil must also remain the greatest wealth of the land into the remotest future. Now that the greatest grain lands of the earth, the American prairies and pampas, the Australian border-steppes, etc., have been almost entirely subjected to cultivation, the extensive market production of grain must, in the nearest future, give way to intensive production. Then the importance of the Ukrainian black earth, which has maintained its great fertility for thousands of years, will become even greater than it is today; and even today the Ukraine must be considered one of the main centers of grain production.