strip on the S. coast of the Crimea, where a climate similar to that
of the Mediterranean coast has permitted the development of a
flora closely resembling that of the valley of the Arno in Italy.
Human cultivation has destroyed the abundant forests which sixty
years ago made deer-hunting possible at Khersones. The olive
and the chestnut are rare; but the beech reappears, and the Pinus
pinaster recalls the Italian pines. At a few points, such as Nikita
near Livadia and Alupka, where plants have been acclimatized by
human agency, the Californian Wellingtonia, the Lebanon cedar,
many evergreen trees, the laurel, the cypress, and even the Anatolian
palm (Chamaerops excelsa) flourish. The grass vegetation is very
rich, and, according to lists still incomplete, no fewer than 1654
flowering plants are known. But on the whole, the Crimean flora
has little in common with that of the Caucasus.[1]
Russia belongs to the same zoo-geographical region as central Europe and N. Asia, the same fauna extending in Siberia as far Fauna. as the Yenisei and the Lena. In the forests not many animals which have disappeared from W. Europe have held their ground; while in the Urals only a few—now Siberian, but formerly also European—are met with. In S.E. Russia, however, towards the Caspian, there is a notable admixture of Asiatic species. Three separate sub-regions may, however, be distinguished on the E. European plains—the tundras, including the Arctic islands, the forest region, especially the coniferous part of it, and the ante-steppe and steppes of the black earth region. The Ural Mountains might be distinguished as a fourth sub-region, while the S. coast of the Crimea and Caucasia, as well as the Caspian deserts, have each their own individuality.
The fauna of the Arctic Ocean off the Norwegian coast corresponds, in its W. parts at least, to that of the N. Atlantic Gulf Stream. The White Sea and the Arctic Ocean to the E. of Svyatoi Nos on the Kola peninsula belong to a separate zoological region, connected with, and hardly separable from, that part of the Arctic Ocean which washes the Siberian coast as far as the mouth of the Lena. The Black Sea, the fauna of which appears to be very rich, belongs to the Mediterranean region, slightly modified, while the Caspian partakes of the characteristic fauna inhabiting the lakes and seas of the Aral-Caspian depression.
In the region of the tundras life has to contend with such unfavourable conditions that it cannot be abundant. Still, the reindeer frequents it for its lichens, and on the drier slopes of the moraine deposits there occur four species of lemming, hunted by the Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus). The willow-grouse (Lagopus albus), the ptarmigan (L. alpinus or mutus), the lark, the snow-bunting (Plectrophanes nivalis), two or three species of Sylvia, one Phylloscopus and a Motacilla must be added. Numberless aquatic birds visit it for breeding purposes. Ducks, divers, geese, gulls, all the Russian species of snipes and sandpipers (Limicolae, Tringae), &c., swarm on the marshes of the tundras and on the crags of the Lapland coast.
The forest region, and especially its coniferous portion, though it has lost some of its representatives within historic times, still possesses an abundant fauna. The reindeer, rapidly disappearing, is now met with only in the governments of Olonets and Vologda; Cervus pygargus is found everywhere, and reaches Novgorod. The weasel, the fox and the hare are exceedingly common, as also are the wolf and the bear in the N., but the glutton (Gulo borealis), the lynx and the elk (C. alces) are rapidly disappearing. The wild boar is confined to the basin of the W. Dvina, and the Bison europea to the Byelovyezh forest in Grodno. The sable has quite disappeared, being found only on the Urals; the beaver may be trapped at a few places in Minsk, and the otter is very rare. On the other hand, the hare, grey partridge (Perdix cinerea), hedgehog, quail, lark, rook and stork find their way into the coniferous region as the forests are cleared. The avifauna of this region is very rich; it includes all the forest and garden birds known in W. Europe, as well as a very great variety of aquatic birds. A list, still incomplete, of the birds of St Petersburg runs to 251 species. Hunting and shooting give occupation to a great number of persons. The reptiles are few. As for fishes, all those of W. Europe, except the carp, are met with in the lakes and rivers in immense quantities, the characteristic feature of the region being its wealth in Coregoni and in Salmonidae generally.
In the ante-steppe the forest species proper, such as Pteromys valans and Tamias striatus, disappear, but common squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris), weasel and bear are still met with in the forests. The hare is increasing rapidly, as well as the fox. The avifauna, of course, becomes poorer; nevertheless, the woods of the steppe, and still more the forests of the ante-steppe, give refuge to many birds, even to hazel-hen (Tetrao bonasa), capercailzie (T. tetrix) and woodcock (T. urogallus). The fauna of the scrub in the river valleys is decidedly rich, and includes aquatic birds. The destruction of the forests and the advance of wheat into the prairies are rapidly thinning the steppe fauna. The various species of rapacious animals are disappearing, together with the colonies of marmots; the insectivores are also becoming scarce in consequence of the destruction of insects; while vermin, such as the suslik, or pouched marmot (Spermophilus), and the destructive insects which are a scourge to agriculture, become a real plague. The absence of Coregoni is a characteristic feature of the fish-fauna of the steppes; the carp, on the contrary, reappears, and the rivers abound in sturgeon (Acipenseridae). In the Volga below Nizhniy-Novgorod the sturgeon (Acipenser ruthenus), and others of the same family, as well as a very great variety of ganoids and Teleostei, appear in such quantities that they give occupation to nearly 100,000 people. The mouths of the Caspian rivers are especially celebrated for their wealth of fish.[2]
Ethnography.—Remains of Palaeolithic man, contemporary with the large Quaternary mammals, are few in Russia; they have been discovered only in Poland, Poltava and Voronezh, and perhaps also on the Oka. Those of the later Lacustrine period, on the contrary, are so numerous that there is scarcely one lacustrine basin in the regions of the Oka, the Kama, the Dnieper, not to speak of the lake-region itself, and even the White Sea coasts, where remains of, Neolithic man have not been discovered. The Russian plains have been, however, the scene of so many migrations of successive races, that at many places a series of deposits belonging to widely distant epochs are found one upon another. Settlements belonging to the Stone age, and manufactories of stone implements, burial-grounds of the Bronze epoch, earthen forts and burial-mounds (kurgans)—of this last four different types are known, the earliest belonging to the Bronze period—are superposed, rendering the task of unravelling their several relations one of great difficulty.
Two different races—a brachycephalic and a dolichocephalic—can be distinguished among the remains of the earlier Stone period (Lacustrine period) as having inhabited the plains of E. Europe. But they are separated by so many generations from the earliest historic times that sure conclusions regarding them are impossible; at all events, as yet Russian archaeologists are not agreed as to whether the ancestors of the Slavs were Sarmatians only or Scythians also, whose skulls have nothing in common with those of the Mongol race. The earliest data which may be regarded as established belong to the 1st century, when the Finns migrated from the N. Dvina region towards the W., and the Sarmatians were compelled to abandon the region of the Don, and cross the Russian steppes from E. to W., under the pressure of the Aorzes (the Mordvinian Erzya) and Siraks, who in their turn were soon followed by the Huns and Uigur-Turkish Avars.
In the 7th century S. Russia was the seat of the empire of the Khazars, who drove the Bulgarians, descendants of the Huns, from the Don, one section of them migrating up the Volga to found there the Bulgarian empire, and the remainder travelling towards the Danube. This migration compelled the N. Finns to advance farther W., and a body of intermingled Tavasts and Karelians penetrated to the S. of the Gulf of Finland.
- ↑ Bibliography of Flora: Beketov, Appendix to Russian translation of Griesebach and Reclus's Géogr. univ.; C. F. von Ledebour, Flora Rossica (Stuttgart, 1842-53); E. R. von Trautvetter, Rossiae Arcticae Plantae (1880), and Florae Rossicae Fontes (St Petersburg, 1880). For flora of the tundras, Beketov's “Flora of Archangel,” in Mem. Soc. Natur. of St Petersburg University, xv. (1884); Regel, Flora Rossica (1884); Brown, Forestry in the Mining Districts of the Urals (1885); Reports by Commissioners of Woods and Forests in Russia (1884).
- ↑ Bibliography of Fauna: see Pallas, Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica; Syevertsov for the birds of south-eastern Russia; M. A. Bogdanov, Birds and Mammals of the Black-Earth Region of the Volga Basin (in Russian, Kazan, 1871); Karelin for the southern Urals; Kessler for fishes; Strauch, Die Schlangen des Russ. Reiches, for reptiles generally; Rodoszkowski and the publications of the Entomological Society generally for insects; Czerniavsky for the marine fauna of the Black Sea; Kessler for that of Lakes Onega and Ladoga; Grimm for the Caspian. The fauna of the Baltic provinces is described in full in the Memoirs of the scientific bodies of these provinces. A. T. von Middendorf's Sibirische Reise, vol. iv., Zoology (St Petersburg, 1875), though dealing more especially with Siberia, is an invaluable source of information for the Russian fauna generally. A. E. Nordenskiöld's Vega-expeditionens Vetenskapliga Iakttagelser (5 vols., Stockholm, 1872-87) may be consulted for the mammals of the tundra region and marine fauna. For more detailed bibliographical information see Aperçu des travaux zoo-géographiques, published at St Petersburg in connexion with the Exhibition of 1878; and the index Ukazatel Russkoi Literatury for natural science, mathematics and medicine, published since 1872 by the Society of the Kiev University.
