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
Of the Sereth and its tributaries, the Sochava and Moldava, only the sources belong
to Ukrainian national territory. On the other hand, a considerable part of the Prut
country lies within it. The Prut River rises at the Hoverla, where it forms a beautiful
waterfall along the crater walls. Then it flows in a picturesque defile toward the
north, forms another waterfall at Yaremche, then immediately leaves the mountains,
uniting in the sub-Carpathian hill-country with the roaring Cheremosh, which also
rises in two source-rivers on the slopes of the Black Mountains and flows in a deeply-cut
meandering valley thru the beautiful Hutzul country. In the sub-Carpathian country
the Prut has a wide, flat valley, taken up in places by marsh meadows. The river winds
down the wide valley in countless twists, forms side branches and old river beds,
and reaches the Danube in the midst of liman-like lakes and bogs, not far from the
swampy delta. Outside of the mountains, the Prut receives only insignificant tributaries
of small volume. Between the Danube and the Dniester we see only a few miserable little
steppe rivers, emptying into salty or bracken liman lakes (e.g., the Yalpukh and the Kunduk Rivers).
The important Dniester River attains a length of over 1300 km., and possesses the greatest variety of distinct
sections of river of all the Ukrainian streams. It originates in the High Beskid,
near the village of Vovche, as a very energetic, wild creek. In a defile it advances
into the sub-Carpathian hill-country, where it has deposited great masses of rubble.
The mountain stream changes rapidly into a lowland stream and forms great swamps in
the Dniester Plain, which, in high-water time, are converted [67]into large river lakes. From the left bank, the Dniester here receives the muddy Vereshitza
(from the Rostoche), which forms many ponds, from Western Podolia, the Hnila Lipa.
All the remaining tributaries of this section of the Dnieper come from the Carpathians,
on the left the Strviazh (Strivihor), on the right the Bistritza, the mighty meandering river Striy with the
Opir, and the Svicha (with the Misunka). All these rivers are mountain streams, flow
in beautiful defiles, and deposit great masses of rubble on the verge of the Carpathians.
Beginning at the delta of the Svicha, the Dniester Plain becomes a wide, flat-bottomed
valley, in which the river flows along in great bends and receives the Limnitzia and both the Bistritzas from the Carpathians. Near Nizniv the banks approach each
other very closely and the Dniester enters a yar (cañon), not leaving its steep sides
until near Tiraspol. The Podolian tributaries of the Dniester on the left side, the Zolota Lipa, Stripa,
Sereth, Zbruch, Smotrich, Ushitza, Murakhva, Yahorlik, roll their turbid waters in
similar cañons toward the Dniester. The Bessarabian tributaries, on the contrary,
have wide, swampy valleys. All these plateau rivers are slight in volume of water,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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