In the east of the Donetz course lie several small cities, e.g., Zolochiv, with its annual fairs; Valki, with a considerable home industry and large fruit-gardens. In the country about the source of the Donetz, on the border of the Ukraine, lies Bilhorod (22,000 pop.), a commercial city with a woolen industry. Downstream, on the Donetz, lie Vovchansk (11,000 pop.), Chuhuyiv (13,000 pop.) and Smiiv. Korocha (14,000 pop.) carries on grain, cattle and fruit trade in its annual fairs, and has some industry (oil-pressing, alcohol-distillation, and albumen manufacture). On the Oskol lie the following: Stari-Oskol (17,000 pop.), with a considerable trade and with a leather, wax, mead and tobacco industry; the insignificant town of Novi-Oskol, Valuiki, Urasova (13,000 pop.), with grain trade, tanneries [[332]]and rope factories; Kupiansk at a railroad junction. On the Tikha Sosna lies Biriuch (13,000 pop.), with annual fairs and oil factories, Olexiyivka, known for sunflower-culture and painters’ guilds, and Ostrohorsk (22,000 pop.), with a large grain, cattle and bacon trade, and soap, wax and tobacco industry, once a center of the fish trade. Starobilsk (13,000 pop.) has lively annual fairs.
On the Don, within the province of the plateau, there are no larger cities. Korotoiak (10,000 pop.) carries on an active trade, Pavlovsk has soap factories, fat-extraction and oil-presses, and is an important river-port, from which the regular Don navigation begins. Altogether, on the eastern border country of the Ukraine, there are no larger cities or even towns. Only a few isolated large villages gain greater significance thru their markets and industry. One of these is the largest village of the Ukraine: Buturlinivka (38,000 pop.), with important annual fairs, with brick-kilns, tanneries, alcohol-stills, as well as very considerable furriery and shoemaking.
The Donetz Plateau is, from an anthropogeographical point of view, a very remarkable country, which has its closest analogy in the North American mining districts. Only the northern edge of the country on the Donetz has an appearance analogous to the adjacent Kharkiv country, with large, typically Ukrainian villages and village-towns. All the remaining region of the Donetz Plateau is a naked steppe. Here and there factory chimneys, isolated or in groups, rise, surrounded by factory buildings and laborers’ huts. The settlements come into existence and grow with true American speed. The Donetz Plateau embraces parts of the Governments of Kharkiv, Katerinoslav and Don.
One of the farthest advance guards of the typical Ukrainian settlements is Isium (23,000 pop.), on the Donetz, one of the chief centers of the pottery industry. [[333]]Slaviansk, once Tor (20,000 pop.), on the Torez, has large salt mines and salt lakes, with bathing pavilions, which draw many guests in the summer, large salt-works and a number of mills, porcelain and metal industries. Besides, Slaviansk has important horse-markets. Nearby, on the chalk-cliffs of the Donetz, lies the famous convent of the Holy Mountains. On the eastern border of the Ukraine, on the Donetz, lies the river port of Kamenske (51,000 pop.), with a great grain trade and glass-works.
In the mining and factory district of the Donetz Plateau there lie, besides innumerable small industrial towns, a number of more important centers. Luhan (60,000 pop.) has a large metallurgical industry with foundries and hammer-works, machine-factories, numerous alcohol-stills, breweries, tanneries, soap and tile factories. Bakhmut (33,000 pop.) has large salt mines and salt-works and considerable trade; the adjacent town of Mikitivka, mercury and coal mines. Yusivka (49,000 pop.) is the chief center of the coal mines, iron and steel factories; Hrushivka (46,000 pop.) the center of the anthracite mines.
The Pontian Plain gives us an anthropogeographical picture which is different from that of the thus far described sections of the Ukraine. Here, in the newly settled steppe region, the type of the Ukrainian settlements gradually disappears. The Ukrainian type of the large villages remains, to be sure, but these villages are, by their position, dependent upon the water as well as other conditions of a practical nature, such as roads, mines, etc., which tempt a great number of people to settle in the district. The huts here and there bear the marks of provisional buildings, are not always whitewashed, are covered with reeds, and in some places even earthen huts have been preserved. As a rule, however, the typical Ukrainian whitewashed and straw-covered clay hut advances farther and farther, and is sometimes even prettier and better equipped here than [[334]]in Northern Ukraine, thanks to the greater prosperity of the peasant. In the last few years more and more brick houses have been built, covered with tiles. Extensive steppe agriculture and steppe cattle-raising have, to this time, been the chief occupation; on the coast, salt-extraction and navigation. Typical Ukrainian towns are rare here, but in the once wild steppes, on the other hand, large commercial and industrial cities have shot up, which possess a much more European appearance than the Russian cities. Almost all these cities lie on the sea, or at the river outlets. The Pontian Plain embraces the southern parts of Bessarabia, Kherson, Katerinoslav, the mainland part of Tauria, the southwestern part of the Don region and the northern part of the Kuban region.
On the Kilia arm of the Danube delta lie the following important river ports, at the same time the centers of the Danube trade and of the sea-fishing industry: Ismail (36,000 pop.), Kilia (12,000 pop.) and Vilkiv. Akerman (40,000 pop.), on the Dniester liman, rich in historical memories, is an important harbor for smaller ships, and carries on a considerable salt, fish, bacon and woolen trade. On the lower course of the Dniester lie the river ports of Dubosari (13,000 pop.), located in the midst of vineyards and fruit-gardens and tobacco fields, with a considerable tobacco, wine, cattle and grain trade; Benderi (60,000 pop.), a strong fortress with a considerable trade, surrounded by fruit-gardens, vineyards and melon-patches and Teraspol (32,000 pop.) with a large grain trade. Here the goods shipped down the Dniester are unloaded, to be sent by rail to Odessa.
Odessa (620,000 pop.), the largest city and the most important port of the Ukraine, is situated 32 kilometers north of the Dniester outlet, and opposite the Dnieper liman, on a deep but open roadstead. By means of expensive constructions, the unprotected harbor of Odessa was [[335]]considerably improved. It now has six protected harbor basins for ships. In some winters the harbor does not freeze over, at other times remaining frozen from 31 to 67 days, but then it can be kept open without difficulty by ice-breakers. The city itself is built up on the high and naked steppe plain, where orchards can be planted and taken care of only with the greatest difficulty. The city has an entirely European appearance, with broad, straight streets and fine houses. There are almost no historic landmarks in Odessa, since it was founded as late as 1794. The city grew very rapidly, especially in its free-harbor period (1817–1859). Today Odessa is the most important seaport of the Russian Empire, after St. Petersburg, and even surpasses the latter in exports. The exports from Odessa are made up chiefly of grain, also cattle, wood, sugar, fishing products, fats and alcohol. These exports go to England, Germany, France, Italy, Holland, Belgium and the far east. The imports of Odessa are disproportionately smaller than the exports, and are made up chiefly of coal, rice, tropical fruits, tea, etc., the benefit of which goes mostly to the cities of Central Russia. Outside of this commercial activity, which is directed by the stock exchange and the numerous banks, Odessa also possesses a well-developed factory industry (mills, sugar, oil, macaroni, canned-goods, alcohol, metal, ceramic, and chemical factories). About the year 1900, the annual productive value was 70 million rubles. Odessa is also a university city, and one of the intellectual centers of the Ukraine. In the vicinity of Odessa are the famous limans of Kuyalnik and Khadzybei, with their sanatoriums.
On the Boh, at the point where the river becomes navigable, lies Vosnesensk, an important river port, with some industry and considerable wood and grain trade. On the deep Boh liman, at the mouth of the Inhul, lies Mikolaiv (103,000 pop.), a very important naval and [[336]]commercial harbor, which has the greatest exportation of grain, after Odessa, and large shipyards, foundries and machine-shops. Krivi Rih (15,000 pop.), on the Inhul, has 33 iron mines, and is the center of Ukrainian iron mining.
On the Dnieper, on the border of the Pontian and Dnieper Plains, lies the city of Katerinoslav (218,000 pop.), hardly more than a century old. Katerinoslav owes its great importance to its position on the Dnieper at the beginning of the rapids section, and at the end of the upper steamboat navigation, where an important railroad line crosses the river, connecting the iron mines of Krivi Rih with the coal fields on the Donetz. Hence, Katerinoslav is, above all, an industrial city with large foundries, forges and machine shops. Katerinoslav carries on the greatest lumber trade in the entire Ukraine. Its grain and coal trade is very important too. Below the rapids, in the old Zaporog country, sacred to every Ukrainian, lies the rapidly rising city of Olexandrivsk (51,000 pop.), an important river port and railroad junction, with a metal and milling industry. Nikopol (17,000 pop.), the point of crossing of the old commercial road over the Dnieper into Crimea, is the center for manganese mining, and has some milling industry. Its harbor is exceptional in that it is reached by smaller sea-vessels, which, however, sail up the Dnieper only as far as Berislav (12,000 pop.), where the grain is transferred from river boats to sea-vessels. On the left Dnieper bank, opposite Berislav, lies the important river harbor of Kakhivka. Oleshki has considerable vegetable, fruit and melon-culture, fishing and crab-fishing.