Ukraine: The Land and Its People. An Introduction to Its Geography.

Of the left-hand tributaries of the Don, the Voronizh, Bitiuh, Khoper, Medveditza, and the Manich (famous, because of its bifurcation) are the most important. Of the right-hand tributaries only one, the Donetz, is important. Its entire course belongs to Ukrainian national territory. It is 1000 km. long, and, in its southerly and then south-easterly direction, entirely analogous to the Dnieper and the Don. The Donetz flows in a broad valley and washes beautiful white cliffs along the steep right bank, crowned with dark forests. The Donetz is capable of floating rafts along a stretch of over 300 km., and is navigable for 200 km. more.

Of the steppe-rivers which tend toward the Sea of Azof from the east, only the Yeia reaches its goal. All the rest end their courses in lagoons.

The last great river of the Ukraine is the Kuban, 800 km. long. It rises in the glaciers of the Elbrus and flows, a roaring mountain stream, in a narrow and deep rocky defile. A great number of the mountain streams of the northern Caucasus slope empty into the Kuban and make it a stream of considerable volume. In the Stavropol hill country the Kuban turns in a widely-drawn curve toward the west. Its valley becomes broad and flat, covered with bogs, swampy forests and wildernesses of reeds. From the left side it receives a number of tributaries from the Caucasus, the most important being the Laba and the Bila. In the midst of immense plavni, lakes and limans, the Kuban forms its many-armed delta, which carries its waters partly to the Black Sea, partly to the Sea of Azof, and embraces the peninsula of Taman.