The longitudinal valleys are much less developed in the High Beskid than in the Low. They are traversed only by smaller brooks. All larger streams like the Strviazh, Dniester and Opir, flow thru well-formed passes. Expansions of valleys (in regions of soft slate) alternate with contractions of valleys (in regions of hard sandstone). Most remarkable are the deeply cut out winding valleys (San, Striy), which offer the best proof of the former smoothing down and the later raising of the mountains.
Beautiful beech and evergreen forests still cover large parts of the High Beskid. Above the tree-line (1200–1300m) we meet for the first time with the characteristic plant-formation of the Polonini (mountain pastures) which yield excellent pasturage for large and small cattle during the summer and create the foundation for a primitive dairy industry.
Along the southern foot of the High Beskid, and separated from it by a chain of longitudinal valleys, a long chain of mountains rises above the neighboring Hungarian plain, bearing the name of Vihorlat (the Burnt Out). The Rivers Uz (Ungh), Latoritzia and Bershava, have cut the Vihorlat into four sections. The range is lower than the Beskyd, since it is less than 1100 m. high, but it is strongly cut up by deep-gorged valleys, and has steep, [[29]]rocky precipices, bold rocky summits and pretty little mountain lakes. The range, which is covered with thick oak forests, owes its scenic character to its geological composition. The Vyhorlat is a line of extinct volcanoes, in the old craters of which the mountain lakes of the region lie. The firm trachyte lava forms picturesque rock walls and peaks. East of the Verezki Pass begins a new mountain section, perhaps the most characteristic one in the sandstone Carpathians. It extends toward the east as far as the passes of the Prut and the Black Tyssa (Theiss) and the Yablonitza Pass. This part of the sandstone Carpathians bears the name of Gorgani.
The uniform mountain walls of the Beskid give way here to shorter mountain ridges, strongly cut up by cross valleys. The main streams of the northern slope, Opir, Limnitzia—the two Bistritzas—flow thru deep, picturesque passes; still deeper are the valleys of the mountain streams which flow into the Theiss, as the Torez, Talabor, etc. It is a remarkable circumstance that the dividing border ridge is lower than the ridges facing it on the north and south, which are broken thru by magnificent passes.
The edge of the Gorgani ridge also shows traces of the old leveling-surface and has only small gorges, yet it is much more curled than in the Beskid. The ridge often becomes a sharp edge and the cone-shaped peaks further break its monotony. The height of the peaks is much greater than in the Beskyd. On the Galician side the Popadia attains a height of 1740 m.; Doboshanka, 1760 m.; Visoka, 1810 m.; Sivula, 1820 m.; in Hungarian territory the Stoh in the picturesque Bershavi group is 1680 m.; the Blisnitza, in the Svidovez Range, 1890 m., etc.
The ridges and peaks of the Gorgani are covered with seas of sandstone boulders and are, therefore, difficult of access. The light gray Yamna sandstone, of great resisting power, appears in this mountain section in very thick [[30]]layers, and is the cause of the greater height and the bolder forms which, in places, are suggestive of high mountain ranges. The energetic weathering process, aided by the cover of winter snow, breaks up the mighty sandstone layers into great rocks, boulders, fragments and rubble. Deep fissures yawn between moss and lichen-covered boulders, many boulders rock under the foot of the wanderer, and many of them, thru caving-in and thru accumulation, have formed natural chambers and hollows. The rocky ridges, covered with seas of boulders, are Arshizia, the Gorgan peaks, whence comes the name of the entire mountain range. The seas of boulders and rubble-stone are called Zekit or Grekhit.
In the highest groups of the Gorgani Range (especially in the Svidovez) are found also distinct traces of the glacial age, glacial excavations with small lakes or with swamps that have taken the place of lakes.
A splendid, only slightly thinned dress of virgin forest covers the Gorgani Chain. The lower forest section is composed of beech, ash and fir trees, the upper part of pines and stone-pines. The tree limit is very irregular and vascillates between 1100 and 1600 m. Mountain pastures are very rare, because of the seas of boulders and rubble-stone, but there are large and beautiful, tho not easily accessible, stocks of mountain pines.
The last section of the Ukrainian Carpathians is called Chornohora (Black Mountains). It extends from the Prut and the Black Theiss to the Prislop Pass; to the valley of the Visheva and of the Golden Bistritza. In this wide and long mountain district we find greater morphological variety than in the mountain sections hitherto discussed. In the wide zone of the northern foothills, which separate with a distinct edge from the sub-Carpathian hills and continue into the Bukowina, we find low ridges and rounded peaks, as in the High Beskid. Only in places on [[31]]peaks and valley sides piles of rock are seen. Then toward the interior of the range follows the wide vale of Zabie, imbedded in soft slate, and above it rises the mighty chain of the Chornohora, the only part of the sandstone region of the Carpathians which has high mountain formations. The chain is composed of the hard magura sandstone, rich in mica. A whole stretch of peaks here attains a height of 2000 m., the highest being the Hoverla (2058 m.). Well-formed, partly rocky ribs branch off from the main ridge on either side. The rock piles of the Shpitzi, Kisli and Kisi Ulohy, are some of the most imposing rock formations of the Carpathian sandstone region. Between the rocky ribs, finely developed glens lie on both sides of the main ridge of the Chornohora, the beds of the ancient glaciers. Waterfalls dash down the steep rock walls in silver streams—of particular interest is the cascade of the Prut under the Hoverla—and down below lie little crater lakes reflecting the patches of summer snow on the crater walls. Almost three-fourths of the year the Chornohoras are covered with snow. In summer the snow almost wholly disappears, and the beautiful carpet of flowers of the mountain pastures, only occasionally interrupted by dark green reserves of mountain-pine, spreads out over the ridges and peaks of the Chornohora. Every summer innumerable herds of cattle, small Hutzul horses and sheep are seen here. Then an intensive dairy industry enlivens the peak regions of the range for three months. The lower regions are still covered with extensive forests; in lower locations we find mixed forests here; in higher altitudes, almost pure stocks of pines.
Standing on one of the Chornohora peaks, on the Hoverla for instance, or the Petros or Pip Ivan, we see, in the near southwest, a new and strange mountain world. It is the third zone of the Chornohora Mountains, the mountain land of Marmarosh. Situated in the region of the headwaters [[32]]of the Theiss and orographically related to the Chornohora, the mountains of the Marmarosh are of entirely different geological composition and have a different morphological appearance. Gneiss and other kinds of crystalline slate, permotriassic and jurassic conglomerates and limestones, as well as eruptive rock of older and of more recent date, lend great geological and morphological variety to the Marmarosh Mountains. The high mountain character here is even more marked than in the Chornohoras. Rocky peaks, ridges, mountain walls, numerous craters, with small glacial lakes, adorn the Marmarosh mountains, which rise higher than 1900 m.: Pip Ivan, Farko, Mikhalek, Petros, Troiaga. Toward the southeast the range wanders over into South Bukowina, where its last boundary-posts, the rocky peaks of Yumalen and Rareu really stand on Roumanian ground. And in the south, beyond the Visheva Valley, which divides the settlements of the Ukrainian Hutzuls from those of the Roumanians, rises the magnificent lofty rampart of the Rodna Mountains, with its two peaks of 2300 m., Pietrosu and Ineu.