Ukraine, the land and its people : $b an introduction to its geographyRudnytskyi, Stepan
Science
Ukraine, the land and its people : $b an introduction to its geography
Rudnytskyi, Stepan
Ukraine; Ukrainians
It is different here in our wide Ukraine. One can travel hundreds of miles in any
direction without seeing a change in the character of the scenery. The uniformity
which is typical for Eastern Europe is peculiar also to the Ukraine. But not to the
extent that it is to Great Russia, where the endlessness of the flat country wearies
the eye of the traveler. For there are in the Ukraine landscapes of high and central
chains of mountains, picturesque hill districts and richly cut plateaus, marshy plains
and steppes strewn with barrows. There is, then, in the Ukraine, a variety of surface
configuration, but on a large scale, not as in Western or Central Europe, confined
in a small space.
The morphological nucleus of the Ukraine is the closed group of plateaus, which extends from the country at the foot of the Carpathians and the Polish part
of the Vistula region to the Sea of Azof. Pontian Plateau or Avratinian Ridge are
the commonly used but incorrect names of this plateau group. The first designation
might do, but the second transfers the name of a little destitute hamlet at the source
of the Sbruch to a territory of hundreds [24]of thousands of square miles. We shall, therefore, select for this plateau group the
name Ukrainian Plateau Group.
It forms a compact whole between the Carpathians and the Dnieper and is divided into
the following individual sections: The Rostoch, between the San and Buh Rivers; Volin,
between the Boh and the Teterev; Podolia, between the Dniester and the Boh; the Pocutian—Bessarabian
Plateau, between the Dniester and the Prut; the Dnieper Plateau, between the Boh and
the Dnieper. The plateau character continues at the rapids section of this river on
the left bank, where, at some distance, the last member of the Ukrainian Plateau Group
lies—the Donetz Plateau.
The plateau group of the Ukraine is bordered on the north and south by two plain districts.
The northern district consists of adjoining lowlands—Pidlassye, Polissye, and the
Dnieper plain—and their extensions along the Donetz; the southern district is made
up of the long stretch of the Pontian steppe-plain, which, in the country at the foot
of the Caucasus, merges into the Caspian desert-steppe.
Beyond the northern plain district, Ukrainian territory does not extend, except in
the Don region, where it embraces the southern spurs of the Central Russian Plateau.
Besides these plateau and plain regions the Ukraine takes in also parts of three mountain
systems of the European continent. The Ukraine is the only country of Eastern Europe
which extends over into the region of the European mountains of plication. Parts of
the Carpathians, the little Yaila chain of Crimea, and the western parts of the Caucasus
lie, together with their environs, in Ukrainian territory.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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