The Ukrainian Mountain Country
Glancing at the map of the Ukraine, we perceive at once that in this country we should seek in vain for such a variety of surface configuration as is peculiar to Central or Western Europe. In Germany or France there appear in a comparatively small space the most varied landscape—chains of high mountains, central chains of mountains, terrace and hill country, plateaus and plains.
It is different here in our wide Ukraine. One can travel hundreds of miles in any direction without seeing a change in the character of the scenery. The uniformity which is typical for Eastern Europe is peculiar also to the Ukraine. But not to the extent that it is to Great Russia, where the endlessness of the flat country wearies the eye of the traveler. For there are in the Ukraine landscapes of high and central chains of mountains, picturesque hill districts and richly cut plateaus, marshy plains and steppes strewn with barrows. There is, then, in the Ukraine, a variety of surface configuration, but on a large scale, not as in Western or Central Europe, confined in a small space.
The morphological nucleus of the Ukraine is the closed group of plateaus, which extends from the country at the foot of the Carpathians and the Polish part of the Vistula region to the Sea of Azof. Pontian Plateau or Avratinian Ridge are the commonly used but incorrect names of this plateau group. The first designation might do, but the second transfers the name of a little destitute hamlet at the source of the Sbruch to a territory of hundreds [[24]]of thousands of square miles. We shall, therefore, select for this plateau group the name Ukrainian Plateau Group.
It forms a compact whole between the Carpathians and the Dnieper and is divided into the following individual sections: The Rostoch, between the San and Buh Rivers; Volin, between the Boh and the Teterev; Podolia, between the Dniester and the Boh; the Pocutian—Bessarabian Plateau, between the Dniester and the Prut; the Dnieper Plateau, between the Boh and the Dnieper. The plateau character continues at the rapids section of this river on the left bank, where, at some distance, the last member of the Ukrainian Plateau Group lies—the Donetz Plateau.
The plateau group of the Ukraine is bordered on the north and south by two plain districts. The northern district consists of adjoining lowlands—Pidlassye, Polissye, and the Dnieper plain—and their extensions along the Donetz; the southern district is made up of the long stretch of the Pontian steppe-plain, which, in the country at the foot of the Caucasus, merges into the Caspian desert-steppe.
Beyond the northern plain district, Ukrainian territory does not extend, except in the Don region, where it embraces the southern spurs of the Central Russian Plateau.
Besides these plateau and plain regions the Ukraine takes in also parts of three mountain systems of the European continent. The Ukraine is the only country of Eastern Europe which extends over into the region of the European mountains of plication. Parts of the Carpathians, the little Yaila chain of Crimea, and the western parts of the Caucasus lie, together with their environs, in Ukrainian territory.
From this general survey of the surface configuration of the Ukraine, we can easily see that more than nine-tenths of the surface of this land is taken up by plains and [[25]]plateaus. Nine-tenths of the Ukrainians have certainly never seen a mountain and do not even know what one looks like. Expressive of this circumstance is the fact that in the wide plateau and plain region of the Ukraine the most insignificant hills bear the high-sounding name of “mountain.” But, despite this, the Ukraine also has its share in the three mountain systems of Europe—the Carpathians, the Yaila, and the Caucasus. All three were formed thru plication of the rock-layers.
The vast plication-formed mountain range of the Caucasus, even in the small part belonging to Ukrainian territory, attains an alpine height; the scenery of the Yaila along the Crimean Riviera is wonderful, but the Carpathians, altho not as lofty as the Caucasus and not of such scenic beauty as the Yaila, are the dearest to the heart of the Ukrainian. For the Ukrainian nation expanded in the Caucasus only a century ago and has but just reached the Yaila. And the Eastern Carpathians have for more than a thousand years been a Ukrainian mountain range.