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
The third member of the Ukrainian plateau group is the Rostoche. Looking from the summit of the castle mountain of Lemberg, famous for its beautiful
prospect, we see, just behind the broad valley of the Poltva River, a chain of high
wooded hills which stretch toward the northeast. They form the spurs of the Rostoche.
The Rostoche, called also the Lemberg-Lublin Ridge, lies, a profusely cut, hilly,
narrow plateau, which is bounded on the one side by the San and Vistula Plain, on
the other side by the low country of the Buh. Toward the southwest the Rostoche has
a steep rim, which, as a matter of fact, is rather insignificant-looking; toward the
east it resolves itself into parallel hill-ridges, which gradually become lower and
between which lie marshy valleys.
The southern part of the Rostoche, which merges with the Podolian Plateau near Lemberg
and extends to the broad, sandy and marshy glacial river valley of Tanva toward the
northwest, is a plateau transformed into an erosive hill-country. The highest hills
attain a height of 400 m. The river valleys are in general flat; only along the steep
borders of the plateau are they cut deep. The steep western border is very picturesque,
with its deep gorges and [46]loess walls. Many vigorous springs appear here, among them the well-known Parashka
spring, from which a heavy column of water rises from time to time.
The oldest rock layer of the Rostoche is the chalk-marl. Above it lie, in almost undisturbed
horizontal layers, miocene limestone, sandstone, clay, sand, Diluvial loam, while
sand and broken stone with many boulders, which are of unmistakable northern origin
and were transported by glaciers and streams of the ice period as far as the southern
part of the Rostoche, form a heavy cover everywhere. The ground is not very fertile,
sand and marl soil being particularly wide-spread.
The northern part of the Rostoche, beyond the Tanva valley, is a broad, slightly undulating
plateau, which, in its highest part, reaches a height of only 340 m. The western edge
of the plateau is distinct and steep and declines in places 100 m. to the low country
of the Vistula. Toward the north the plateau surface declines very gradually and merges
almost imperceptibly into the plain of the Pidlassye. The river valleys, as those
of the Buh, Vepr, are broad, flat and marshy.
The geological constitution of the northern Rostoche is almost entirely similar to
that of the southern part. Its soil cover, too, is not very fertile, and only great
woods have survived, especially in the districts of the old morainic sand and loam.
Only in the neighborhood of the Pidlassye does the soil become more fertile. For the
configuration of surface of the Rostoche, the recent post-glacial raising of the ground
has also been of great significance, altho here it was not nearly so intensive as
in Podolia.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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