DNIEPER, Ram:. prom dnyi•'..r. A river of the largest in Europe with the exception of the Volga and the Danube (Map: 1) Si. It rise in the swamp, of the of Smolensk, and, after leav ing that government. flows in a southern direc tion as far a. Kiev. At that city it turns south east, and maintains that direction down to Yekaterinoslay. where it again turn: to the smith. In this part of the river the hanks are rocky and elevated. and the river form: its famous: l‘hieli can be passed only at full tide and with the of experienced pilots. Below Alex androvsk the Dnieper assumes a southwestern Sea course. emptying into the 131 s I son. when it forms a wide estuary. known as the Dnieper Liman. The total length of the river is over IMO miles.
It is navigable for nearly its entire length. and is of great commercial importance. Its chief tributaries are the Beresina, Pripet. and Ingulets from the right, and the Sii and Desna from the left. The basin of the river is estimat ed at 200.000 square miles. almost entirely with
in the boundaries of Russia. The waters of the Dnieper abound in fish. There is steam naviga tion from Ors ha, in the northern part of the Government of \Iohilev, to Yekaterinoslay. and from Alexandrovsk. below the to Kher son. The freight- carried on the Dnieper eonsists principally of grain and lumber. and has an an nual value of about S40.000,000. The Dnieper communicates with the Baltic Sea through the 'Teresina Canal. which connects the Beresina with the Dvina. the Oginski Canal connecting indirectly the Pripet, a tributary of the Dnieper, with the Niemen, and the Dnieper-1311g. Canal, conneeting the Pripet with a tributary of the Vis tula. In its upper course the Dnieper usu ally frozen over from December to April. while at Kblirsom near the mouth, it is ice-hound for only two months, from •anuary to March. In ancient times the Dnieper was known as the Boristhenes or Danapris.