The climatic difference is illustrated more clearly still when we consider the matter from the climatological side. Voyekov, the great Russian climato pzeshasiemlogist, [235]expressly the slight cover of snow in the Ukraine, the relatively high temperature of the warmer periods of the winter, and the abnormally warm spring, which is due to the lightness of the snow-cover, which requires only a little of the spring warmth to melt it. The snow cover of Poland, Lithuania or Northeastern Germany is much more similar to that of Muscovy than the Ukrainian. The January isotherms in the Ukraine switch over from the N. to S. direction to the N. W. to S. E. direction. The isotherm of the typical Russian winter (January -8 to -10°) avoids the region of the Ukraine entirely. It is true that the Dnieper and Dniester have the same amount of ice as the Volga or the Dvina. But here the main consideration should be the period of freezing; the Dvina is covered over for 190 days, the Volga 160, the Dnieper in the Ukraine only 80 to 100 days, the Dniester 70 days. These are certainly greater differences. Still greater differences between the Ukrainian and the Muscovite climates become evident when we compare the length of the winter, or the time suitable for work outdoors. In Great Russia this time is at most four months; in the Ukraine, at least six and a half; and in its southern borderlands even nine months. Such differences play a great part in the life of the people. The time of the winter obstructions and enforced idleness is twice as great in Russia as in the Ukraine. The struggle with the cold takes on forms in the Ukraine which are entirely analogous to the Western European forms. In the Muscovite country we observe polar elements in the winter-life of the people. The Ukrainian winter does not depress the people, does not bore them to death, but only steels their bodies in the struggle with the cold and gives them the desired rest after the summer’s heat. The winter is the time of the most intensive social life among the Ukrainian peasantry.