Sieppes.—This name, which is Russian, is given more particularly to the extensive plains which lie on the north-west of Asia. Considered as a whole, the steppes have a character quite different from the other great plains of the world, though in different parts they present partially the distinguishing features which characterise the Banos, the savannas, the pampas, the sandy deserts, &c. Generally speaking,thcy consist of rich pastures intermingled with woods, barren sands, muriatiferous clay, and abounding in lakes, pools, and etreams of salt and bitter waters.
From the sea of Azof on the west to the foot of the Little Altai on the east, there is a band extending, in a north-east direction, from the mouth of the Kuban towards Torusk, where the undulations of the plain prevent the egress of the waters, which, percolating through a highly saline soil, are collected in the hollows into innumerable lakes and pool, of salt water, which give a peculiar feature and interest to these steppes.
Farther northward, the Siberian plains have a general slope towards the Frozen Ocean, and are intersected by the great rivers Obi, Yenisei, and Lena ; Isetween the lower courses of which extend immense frozen marshes, covered with moss, and interspersed with a few sandy and clayey hills crowned with tufts or clumps of stunted birch and other dwarf shrubs.
The greater part of what are properly called the steppes form a con siderable part of the country known as Independent Tartary, which is inhabited by the nomadic hordes of the Kirghis Cessake.
The steppe which lies on the north-west of the Caspian, bounded by the Caucasus, the sea of Azof, the lower course of the Don, and thence to the Ural or Talk, is inhabited by the Cossaks of the Black Sea and the Nogay Tartars. The whole of this steppe is characterised as composed of hills of a moving shelly sand, between which are beautiful green pastures, and marshy hollows with reeds and clumps of trees, among which are willows, poplars, and the wild olive. There are nume rous salt streams and brine pool; barren latches covered with a saline efflorescence, and in many places tufts of saline plants. The fertility of the hollows seems due to a sheet of water which, coming from the hilly range called Obstchei Sirt, a branch of the Ural, flows innate diately below the sandy surface, being probably retained by an im pervious substratum.
Between the hilt on the west and a low ridge of hills on the east, which may be regarded as a sonth-eastern continuation of the Ural, and which extends between the Aral and the Caspian, is another steppe similar in character to that already described. It is occupied by the Kirghis of the little horde ; while what is called the central or middle horde ranges over the vast steppe contained between the lake Aral and the Sir on the south, the low hills already mentioned on the west, the Ouloustaou and Naourgiuskaia ranges on the north, and the Saranou on the east. With the exception of the Sir, all the waters of this great basin lose themselves in the sand, or in lakes more or less salt, the principal of which is the famous Aksakal BarL To the north of the last-mentiened steppe lies the great steppe or plain of Ischim, which extends from the eastern elope of the southern extremity of the Ural, across the Tobol, to the Irtish. It takes its name from the river Iechim, which, dividing it nearly in two, falls into the Irtish near PetropavloirskoL The north-east part of this steppe towards Tam, on the left bank of the Irtish, is covered with dense forests abounding in game and rich in firs.
Crossing the Irtish, we enter the great steppe of Baraba, occupying all the space between that river and the Upper Obi. This steppe, lying nearer the foot of the mountainous district of the eouth and east, contains numerous lakes and pools, particularly in its southern portion. This district is in many places extremely fertile, and along the water-courses the grass grows luxuriantly. The north and north west parts are wooded, but the more southern, those lying along the Irtish and towards the Altai, have few trees, and are less fertile. The lake Techany, the largest and nearly the most northerly of the great group of lakes, abounds in fish ; the surrounding country is extremely fertile, and abounds in aquatic game, the chief nourishment of the Tartar tribes who live dispersed along the frontiers of this canton. Interspersed with the sandy, barren, and saline spots, are many places where there is excellent land for tillage, in which grain and flax succeed well. The Kirghiz of the great horde occupy a more moun tainous country to the south of the Sara-sou.