Peter Kropotkin and John Thomas Bealby

“ It is built up of Tertiary deposits, belonging to the Sarmatian division of the Miocene period and covered with loess and black earth, and its escarpments represent the old shore-line of the Caspian. No Caspian deposits are found on or within the Ergeni hills. These hills exhibit the usual black earth flora, and they have a settled population. The eastern part of the steppe is a plain, lying for the most part 30 to 40 ft. ”

“ The breeding of livestock, fishing, and some domestic trades, chiefly carried on by the women, are the principal sources of maintenance.
See I. V. Mushketov, Geol. Researches in the Kalmyk Steppe in 1884–1885 (St Petersburg, 1894, in Russian) ; Kostenkov’s works (1868–1870) ; and other works quoted in Semenov’s Geogr. Dict. and Russ. Encycl. Dict. (P. A. K.; J. T. Be.) ”