Dnieper River

“ Sand, swamps and forest terraces cover the flat valley bottoms, which are flooded every spring.
At the porohs of the Dnieper the country rises much higher than at Pereyaslav or Kreminchuk, where the Dnieper Plain rises barely 50 m. above sea-level. At the porohs the landscape on both sides is that of a low rock-plateau. The picturesque rocks of the Dnieper banks, the rapids and ledges of rock in the river bed, everywhere remind us that here the Ukrainian Horst is crossed by the main stream of the Ukraine. ”

“ 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) . ”

“ Dnieper receives them all into its dark bosom: not one escapes it. The dark wood with its sleeping ravens, and the old rugged mountains above them, try to hide the river with their long dark shadows, but it is in vain: there is nothing in all the world which could overshadow the Dnieper! Blue, infinitely blue, its smooth surface is always moving by night and by day, and is visible in the distance as far as mortal eye can see. ”

“ They dare not look into the midst of the Dnieper; no one save the sun and the blue sky looks into that. It is rare that a bird flies as far as the midmost waters. Glorious river, there is none other like it in the world!
“Wonderful is the Dnieper in the warm summer nights when all things are asleep: men and beasts and birds, and God alone in His majesty looks round on the heaven and the earth and royally spreads out His sacerdotal vestment and lets it tremble. And from this vestment the stars are scattered: the stars burn and shine over the world, and all are reflected in the Dnieper. ”

“ They had rowed in boats on the Dnieper, had cooked field porridge on the other side of the river, in the thick, bitter-smelling underbrush; had bathed—men and women by turns—in the rapid, warm water; had drunk home-made spiced brandy, sung sonorous songs of Little Russia, and had returned to town only late in the evening, when the dark, broad, running river so eerily and merrily plashed against the sides of their boats, playing with the reflections of the stars, the silvery shimmering paths of the electric lamps, and the bowing lights of the can-buoys. ”

“ The fall of the river in that distance is 155 ft. The Dnieper, having got clear of the rocks, continues south-west through the grassy plains of Kherson and Taurida, and enters the Black Sea, or rather a liman or bay of the Black Sea, by a considerable estuary in 46° 30′ N. and 32° 20′ E. On this ramifying liman, into which the Bug also pours its waters, stand Nikolaiev and the fortified town of Ochakov. Navigation extends as far up as Dorogobuzh, where the depth is about 12 ft., and rafts are floated down from the higher reaches. The banks are generally high, more particularly the left bank. ”

“ The most important waterway of the Ukraine is the Dnieper system. The main river is navigable in its entire Ukrainian section by the largest river vessels. In the entire Russian river system the Dnieper system constitutes 11% of the length, 10% of the total navigable length, 16% of [303] the length navigable by steamship-lines. The rapids section, however, as a result of the incomprehensible negligence of the Russian Government, is, to this day, accessible only to the smaller ships and rafts, and then only for sailing downstream. ”

“ Where the estuary joined Father Dnieper a great raft of logs was floating lazily down the river.
My Tatars were already galloping the tarantass down toward the inlet and I soon saw that they would be hidden by the trees before the riders, who had been waiting by the highway, could come up to the summit of the hill. The man who had been on watch was standing still, because I had kept to my place. If I had rushed away with the carriage he would have run up, no doubt. Skulkers are bold when backs are turned. ”

“ Beyond the water there was a great stretch of grazing meadow, then long rolling fields of rye and barley, extending to the woods which bounded the view in every direction. The village was situated within a few miles of the great main highway running from Warsaw to Moscow, and the waters of the lake fed the stream which flowed into one of the branches of the river Dnieper.
The whole region, including the village and nearly all the people in it, belonged to the estate of Baron Popoff, the roofs of whose residence were just visible to the southward, on a hill overlooking the road to Moscow. ”

“ Author of "The Boiling of the Warriors," "An Edge to a Sword," etc.
THE roar of the cataracts drowned all other sounds. It was a mighty voice, that of Father Dnieper—the river that ran through the vast steppe of the Cossacks to the shores of the Black Sea, the borderland of the Turk. ”

“ Towards the southern and central parts the surface is covered by deep rich “black earth.” Nearly the whole of the government belongs to the basin of the Dnieper, that river forming part of its eastern boundary. In the south-west are a few small tributaries of the Bug. Besides the Dnieper the only navigable stream is its confluent the Pripet. The climate is more moderate than in middle Russia, the average temperatures at the city of Kiev being—year, 44.5°; January, 21°; July, 68°; yearly rainfall, 22 inches. The lowlands of the north are covered with woods ”

“ In 1812 it was bridged at Vitebsk and Dünaburg, half-way to Riga, but, since the left bank is generally higher than the right between these places, the river does not afford a good line of defence.
From the Düna at Vitebsk southward to the Dnieper at Orsha is a gap of about 45 miles. At Orsha the Dnieper, one of the great rivers of Europe, turns to the southward, to flow for 800 miles into the Black Sea. Seventy miles [Pg 61] above Orsha is Smolensk, where in 1812 there was a bridge. At Mohilev, 50 miles below Orsha, there was another. The river is rarely fordable even during the summer. ”

“ It is watered by the Dnieper, which flows along the frontier for 180 miles, and by two small rivers, the Molotchnaya and Berda. Many small lakes and ponds occur in the north, especially among the Dnieper sands, as well as on the Kinburn peninsula, at the mouth of the Dnieper, where salt is made. There are no forests except the artificial plantations in the colonies of the Mennonites. The climate is continental, and resembles that of central Crimea and Kherson. ”

“ The few short summer months are saturated with flaring sunshine, causing the fields fairly to leap toward the farmer, full-handed with harvests. In these halcyon days the people revel in the miraculous transformation of nature, but when winter comes, the land of the Dnieper feels the sweep of icy northern winds quite as bitterly as do the dwellers on the Neva. ”

“ It is only in the vicinity of the great rivers that the country assumes a different aspect, and the wearied eye at last enjoys the pleasure of encountering more limited horizons, a more verdant vegetation, and a landscape more varied in its outlines. Among these rivers, the Dniepr claims one of the foremost places, from the length of its course, the volume of its waters, and the deep bed it has excavated for itself athwart the plains of Southern Russia. ”

“ In the north it is occupied by the watershed which separates the basins of the Dvina and the Dnieper, an undulating tract 650 to 900 ft. above sea-level, and covered nearly everywhere with forests. This watershed slopes gently to the south, to the valley of the Dnieper, which enters the government from the north-east and flows due south. The southern part of the government is flat and has much in common with the Polyesie of the government of Minsk; it is, however, more habitable, the marshes being less extensive. ”

“ Go and lie down, and I’ll do it all for thee.” Then she whistled, and the mountain was levelled and the Dnieper flowed over the site of it, and round about the Dnieper store-houses rose up, and then she came and woke him that he might go and sell the wheat to the merchant barques that sailed by that way, and when the she-dragon rose up early in the morning she was amazed to see that everything had been done which she had commanded him. ”

“ The southern end of the Neversink Pond valley is the only other place whose level is so low that drift deposits could have interfered with the Rocky River drainage. The moraine at the head of this valley, crossing the country some two miles north of the city of Danbury and binding together two prominent north-and-south ridges, was evidently the barrier which choked the Rocky River valley near its mouth and turned back the preglacial river. ”

“ The Boug and the Dnieper issue into a large basin, formed partly by the projection of the main shore, partly by a long narrow strip of Sand-beach, which continues from it and takes a north-westerly direction until it passes the promontory of Otchakov, where it terminates, and from which it is separated by the channel, whereby the waters of the estuary empty into the Black Sea. ”

“ NIKOPOL, a town of Russia, in the government of Ekaterinoslav, on the right bank of the Dnieper, 70 m. S.S.W. of the town of Ekaterinoslav. It was formerly called Nikitin Rog, and occupies an elongated peninsula between two arms of the Dnieper at a point where its banks are low and marshy, and has been for centuries one of the places where the middle Dnieper can most conveniently be crossed. Its inhabitants, 21,282 in 1900, are Little Russians, Jews and Mennonites, who carry on agriculture and shipbuilding. ”

“ The consequence is that the transport of goods can only be effected in winter and during four months of summer. Nor must we allow ourselves to imagine that sledging is a very safe mode of carriage; the snow-storms cause great disasters, and if the winter be at all rigorous, an enormous number of draught oxen are lost.
Every one knows what fine rivers nature has bestowed on New Russia. The Dniestr and the Dniepr are two admirable canals, which, after having traversed the central parts of the empire and its most fertile regions, terminate in the Black Sea. ”

“ But the great flood of the spring had swept the valley clean. Where the year before there were prosperous ranch establishments with gasoline pumping plants, there was only desolation now. It was as though we traveled in the path of a devastating army. Perhaps the summer of 1908 was the most unfavorable season for such a trip in the last fifty years. Steamboating on the upper river is only a memory. There are now no wood-yards as formerly. We found ourselves with no certainty of procuring grub and oil; our engine became more and more untrustworthy; our paddles had been lost. ”

“ If it wasn't for the trees and brush, which prevent us seeing just where every little rise is, it would be comparatively easy, but unless we know the lie of the ground, we might plan a ditch just on the wrong side of a ridge of comparatively solid earth, which would divert the entire stream. Of course, there's a pretty good fall to the river, both the Mud River and the Red Lake River, but even so, an unobserved ridge of earth a few feet high, running along for a couple of miles would throw out the value of that particular ditch and create the cause for a new drainage area. ”

“ In fact, in former times, and subsequent to the retreat of the great glaciers, a rocky barrier crossed the valley at this place, damming the river which came from the glaciers higher up. A lake was thus formed which poured its waters over the barrier. Two actions were here at work, both tending to obliterate the lake—the raising of its bed by the deposition of detritus, and the cutting of its dam by the river. In process of time the cut deepened into the Via Mala; the lake was drained, and the river now flows in a definite channel through the plain which its waters once totally covered. ”

“ We continued to follow the course of the Dwina for more than fifty miles. I do not know anything that gives a more dreary idea of a country than the sight of a broad and silent river, whose unbroken surface reflects no human habitation as far as the eye can reach, not a single bark to ruffle the mysterious stillness of the waters, nor any living thing to awaken the echoes of those dismal forests of pine which stretch far away to the verge of the horizon, and seem an impenetrable bar to the advance of civilization. ”

“ A gray mist rolled with the wind, and dull clouds scudded over. We pitched camp in a clump of cottonwoods and made flapjacks; after which the Kid and I, taking our blankets and the rifle, set out to explore Hell Creek.
Reveille!
The Pen and Key Ranch.
The windings of the ravine soon hid us from the river, and we found ourselves in a melancholy world, without life and without any human significance. It was very easy to imagine one's self lost amid the drear ashen craters of the moon. We pushed on up the creek, kicking up clouds of alkali dust as we went. ”

“ Between Neversink Pond and Danbury extends a deep rock valley, in places filled with drift. As has been shown, this valley was probably occupied in preglacial time by Rocky River, which then flowed southward. At its southern end is Still River, which flows through Danbury from west to east.
The most important tributary of the Still rises northwest of the city, just beyond the New York-Connecticut boundary line, and has two forks. The northern fork, which drains East Lake, Padanaram Reservoir, and Margerie Pond, flows along the northeast side of Clapboard Ridge. ”