The Dnieper is the third largest river in Europe, after the Volga and the Danube. The length of its course is more than 2100 km. The region it drains includes 527,000 sq. km., not much less than the whole of France. Among the streams of the globe the Dnieper ranks thirty-second. If the Dniester possesses some of the properties of a Central European river, namely, mountainous country at its source and many mountain tributaries; if the Boh is a genuine plateau river; the Dnieper, on the other hand, is the real type of a river in Eastern Europe. It rises in White Russia near the village of Clozove. A little swamp, which was formerly a small lake, situated at a height of 256 m., forms the source of the river. Because of this small height of the source, the Dnieper has, as, in fact, all the Eastern European rivers have, a very insignificant incline and an average speed of current of 0.4 m. per second. The source of the Dnieper lies near the sources of the Dvina and the Volga, as well as the source streams of the Neva. Near its source the Dnieper is a small, muddy streamlet, which seeks its way southward in a flat valley, three miles wide, between swamps and moors. But quickly its volume increases, and, as near the source as Dorogobuz, the river becomes navigable for smaller vessels. Here it suddenly [72]turns to the west, both valley slopes, but especially the left one, become higher and steeper, the valley narrows down to ½ km. But after a short stretch it becomes wide and swampy again at Smolensk. The depth of the river is very irregular, the pools (plessa) attaining a depth of 5 meters, the rapids often less than ½ meter. From Smolensk to Orsha the Dnieper Valley again becomes hardly 1 kilometer wide, between high banks. On the left bank picturesque, rocky precipices appear. At Orsha the Dnieper turns to the south, retaining this direction as far as Kiev. Down to Shclov the Dnieper Valley remains narrow, with steep slopes, then it widens slowly but steadily. The depth of the river reaches 10 meters, but many shoals, great morain boulders and broken sandstone make navigation difficult. Below Mogilev the spurs of the White Russian and Central Russian plateaus withdraw from the Dnieper and show only on the left side. The river reaches the low plain of the Polissye and flows in majestic turns thru swamps and meadows which are dotted with old river beds. In this section of its course the Dnieper receives the Druch and the voluminous, navigable Beresina on the right, and the navigable Soz on the left. The Dnieper receives an especially great amount of water from the Beresina. River navigation is doubled below its entrance, mainly because of innumerable rafts which are traveling to the treeless South Ukraine and the Black Sea from the forests of White Russia.