The Pokutian-Bessarabian Plateau embraces a narrow zone of Southeastern Galicia and the Northern Bukowina, as well as the northern part of the Russian Government of Bessarabia. The manner of settling is similar to the Podolian, with large villages and few small cities. Agriculture and wine-growing are the most important occupation of the people; toward the south cattle-raising is becoming of greater importance. Home industry is insignificant, of factory industry there is almost none. In Galician-Pokutye the only cities worthy of mention are Horodenka (11,000 pop.), in a very fertile region, and the old commercial city of Sniatin (12,000 pop.), and in Bukowina-Pokutye the commercial town of Kitzman. In Bessarabia we find, on the Dniester, the former fortress of Khotin (18,000 pop.), memorable for two Turkish battles (1621 and 1673), now a river port and the seat of an active grain and fruit trade, [323]as well as a notorious nest of smugglers. The second Dniester port of Bessarabia, Soroki (15,000 pop.), serves principally the export trade. At some distance from the course of the Dniester lies the insignificant town of Orhüv (13,000 pop.), and the dirty city of Biltzi (19,000 pop.), with a large grain and cattle trade. The capital of Bessarabia, Kishiniv (125,000 pop.), lies outside of the Ukrainian territory. The Dnieper Plateau is important, not only because of its agriculture, cattle-raising and fruit-culture, but also because of a considerable cultivation of commercial plants, because of a developed home and factory industry, and because of a comparatively lively trade. It is one of the central districts of the Ukraine, with typical conditions of settlement. Large agglomerations of dwellings, picturesquely located, consisting of whitewashed, straw-covered clay huts, lie on the rivers and creeks, usually on wide valley bottoms or slightly inclined valley sides, surrounded and dotted with the fresh green of orchards. On the plateau, which is one great wave of never-ending grain-fields, there lie only a few scattered manors of large landowners, single farmhouses, bee orchards, adjoining little woodlands and groves. The number and size of the cities is not great. The prevailing type is that of the village city—a great village with an area of buildings in the middle, which have a city-like character. The streets are broad and unpaved, the green of the gardens being apparent even in the center of the city. Where the northeastern spurs of the Dnieper Plateau reach the Dnieper River, lies the natural capital of the Ukraine, the former “mother of the Ruthenian cities,” Kiev (506,000 pop.). Its great history finds expression in an enormous number of architectural monuments, especially churches and convents. (Lavra Pecherska, the Church of Sophia, the Church of Andreas, the Tithe Church, the Golden Gate, etc.). Kiev was the capital of the [324]ancient Ukrainian Kingdom and its spiritual center; today it is called the “Ukrainian