The Yaila Mountains of Crimea are, in comparison with the Carpathians, a small mountain system hardly 150 km. long and 35 km. wide. They lie in three parallel ranges, separated by longitudinal valleys, along the southeast shores of the peninsula. The northern declivities of all the ridges are gently sloping, the southern ones steep. The southern main range exceeds a height of 1500 m. with its peaks, Chatirdagh, Roman-chosh, and Demir Kapu. This main ridge, which declines toward the sea in steep precipices, is flat and rocky on top, strewn with rock-craters; [35]it bears the name Yaila and serves as a lean mountain pasture. Deep gorges cut the rough surface of the summit and divide it into single table mountains. The mountains of Crimea, like the Carpathians, are mountains of plication. They are composed of Jurassic, chalk, and miocene-layers. The large blocks of lime of the Jurassic, which rest on softer slates and clays, form the main ridge of the mountains. Besides craters, we find, in the limestone mountains of the Yaila, impassable furrows (German Karrenbildungen) and numerous hollows. Very picturesque is the magnificent precipitous decline of the main range of the Yaila to the sea. Here the entire southern part of the range has sunk in great ravines and the resisting power of the eruptive rocks which appear here has created a coastal mountain landscape of great beauty. Protected by the mountain wall from northerly winds, a Mediterranean flora has been able to develop here at the southern foot of the range, while beautiful leafy forests partly cover the declines of the mountains. On the peninsula of Kerch, which forms the eastern extreme of Crimea, a low steppe-like hill-country extends seemingly as a prolongation of the Yaila Range. The new tertiary clays are here laid in flat folds, which are more closely related to the Caucasus. Here, and on the quite similarly formed Taman peninsula, we find many small cone-shaped mud volcanoes which emit gases, smoke, and thinly flowing blue-gray mud from their miniature craters. The magnificent lofty range of the Caucasus forms the boundary-post of the Ukraine on the east. Only the western part of the mountain system lies within Ukrainian territory. We shall, therefore, discuss it quite briefly.